


A Natural Disaster

by ThunderFrost2012



Series: Welcome to the (crazy) World of Huey, Dewey and Goofy! [3]
Category: Muse, Muse (Band), Music RPF, Real Person Fiction
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Babysitting, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, Cute Kids, Established Relationship, Multi, have fun, lots of trouble, some sexy times too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-20
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-04-22 15:16:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4840325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThunderFrost2012/pseuds/ThunderFrost2012
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chris wants to spend a very good time with Kelly, but they don’t know what to do with their kids, but Chris finds the perfect solution that  involves two certain people… Trust me, the whole situation is going to backfire on the poor, dear bassist!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter I: Decorations/Degenerations

**Author's Note:**

> Sequel of : How did it come to this/Space Dementia
> 
>  
> 
> Pairing: BellDom (what else?)
> 
>  
> 
> Rating: overall pg 13, but will have some NC17 moments, too!
> 
>  
> 
> Setting: Como. December 2007. Christmas time.
> 
> Genre: overall fluff, parody, fluff, comedy, fluff, a little kinkiness and... did I mention fluff?
> 
>  
> 
> Warnings: attempts of body-painting, mirror sex and a bit of kinkiness ;P
> 
> Disclaimer: so, do you really believe that this happened for real, that I own/know Matt, Dom, Chris, Kelly and the kids and that I get paid for writing this absurdity? Of course things are different in RL, but it would be soooooo nice if some stuff between our beloved two guys happened/will happen for real!
> 
> The title is taken from 'Nature_1' lyrics by Muse, because, well.. it fits. ^^
> 
> Plus, the story is going to satisfy somewhat this old prompt:
> 
> Matt/Dom
> 
> For some reason Matt and Dom are forced to babysit Chris' kids and it's all domestic and cute (and a bit chaotic). After the kids leave/go to bed they have really tender and loving sex.  
> Because dammit, fluff is a kink too
> 
> that's why I reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaallllly hope you'll give it a try!
> 
> After all, in Italy people appreciated this story a lot.. hope you’ll like it as well.

Como, 17 Dec 2007

"What about these ones?" Matt asks his mate, showing him two Christmas tree balls, half blue and half golden.

"They don't convince me at all." Dom says, after examining them carefully.

"Look at this balls, they're red and... glittery!" Matt exclaims trying to make Dom notice, showing him the items in question, very excitedly.

 

If it was up just to Matt, those balls would become a sure purchase, too bad that his soulmate didn’t agree.

"Uhh, yeah, they're nice, but there's better stuff." the blond shrugs.

"There can't be anything better than glitter!"

"If we buy three tubes of glitter, will you shut up?"

"Deal!"

 

Smiling triumphantly the singer proceedes to fill the shopping trolley with the desired purchases.

It's a Monday.

Muse have some weeks of break during half of December before touring again. Deciding to enjoy themselves and relax at home Matt and Dom decided to take advantage of the beautiful day to go to the biggest Arcade in Como.

For them , this is the best time of the year to wander through such crowded places simply because of the fact that everyone is too busy with their Christmas shopping to notice anything else apart from food, gifts and decorations. Everyone's far to busy to notice when successful rockstars are in the vicinity.

Besides, no one would ever expect to meet two thirds of Muse in a shopping centre in Lombardy.

 

If for some strange reasons someone notices them, they’re isolated cases. 

For all these reasons, Matt and Dom love hanging around, just like two normal guys.

 

"Wait. I like those balls with the picture of Santa Clause." Dom comments, but Matt grasps his wrist, to prevent his boyfriend from taking them.

"Don't even try. There won't ever be any old geezer on *my* Christmas tree!" the brunet swears.

"But... Matthew, Santa Clause is the main symbol of Christmas!" the blond try to make him reason.

"I don't think so. I think that he's just a senile fool who brings gifts to all the children in the world, only because he doesn't remember who his real nephews and nieces are!" the younger guy explains, as he gesticulates vividly, just like he does every time he's fevered.

 

The elder guy stares at him in utter shock.

 

"Gee, Matthew, that's such an awful thing to say!"

"I don't care, it's just the twuth. I'm serious, Dominic, you can put whatever you want on the tree, pinecones, cookies, festoons, stuffed animals, toy soldiers, robots, everything but that bloody geezer! I won't accept any compromise on that, even Gaia gave in!"

 

Hearing that name, Dom wrinkles his nose and grimaces.

"Too bad that she took away all the Christmas decorations, last year we had bought such beautiful stuff..." Matt adds, nostalgic.

"That's better, we can instead make lots of changes, it will be a breath of fresh air." the blond states.

"Sure, if only you took a bloody decision, we've been here for hours! Hurry the fuck up, it's not like you can create decorations from nothing!" the brunet makes Dom notice, losing his patience.

Dom stares at his boyfriend, enlightened.

"Mattie, I adore you! You've just given me a fantastic idea!" Dom grinned whilst grabbing the first packaging of plain Christmas balls before heading with the shopping trolley straight towards the do-it-yourself department.

"What are you planning Dom?"

 

The percussionist raises his eyebrow.

 

"Bells, are you any good with a paint brush?"

\-------------------------------------------------------

"Look, you missed a spot!" Dom warns Matt, pointing at the uncovered part of the Christmas ball.

"Uh, you're right, sorry." Matt proceedes to cover even that spot with dark brown paint.

 

Since they came back with all the necessary stuff, they’ve been busy for more than one hour and half painting the Christmas tree balls they’ve bought whilst sitting comfortably on a carpet in the living room.

 

The television is on, tuned on one of their beloved Italian channels, giving them a soft background as they carry out their task.

 

After all those months, Matthew finally learnt how to distinguish between commercials and reality. Right now his main entertainment is to watch all the commercials about the main Christmas cakes called pandoro and panettone, he didn’t imagine there could be so many brands..

 

Matt and Dom chose such a pleasantly warm temperature in their house that they can afford the luxury of wearing only their t-shirt and boxers which of course was also to avoid spoiling their clothes. 

 

They’re working like a well oiled machine: firstly, Matt paints the balls with dark brown, one by one, and then he passes them to Dom who adds some artistic flair with light brown streaks.

 

“That’s it. Now we just have to wait for the paint to dry and then we’ll add the black spots. The Christmas balls will look so good!” A delighted Dom comments as he finishes the last ball.

 

“Yeah, but it will take hours. What can we do in the meantime?” Matt snorts, bored.

 

“My dear, impatient guy, I guess we’ll have to find something to do.” Dom replies, taking the opportunity to playfully write on Matt's t-shirt with the black paint they hadn’t used yet.

 

“Hey! Are you nuts?” the frontman snaps, disliking Dom’s childish gesture.

 

“Oh, c’mon, it’s just a plain, white t-shirt, I’ll buy two hundreds t-shirts like that, if you want. BESIDES Bell's it’s washable paint! You can just dip it in the water and your t-shirt will be like new anyway!”

 

Upon hearing this Matthew's mood changes immediately.

 

“Well, if put it like that…” the singer trails, snatching the brush from his lover’s hand and aiming towards the blond’s t-shirt.

“Hey, wait. It’s black, just like your boxers, it’s useless to paint on it.” he grumbles, bothered, before smiling, enlightened for finding a solution to his problem.

 

And Dom can read that solution in his boyfriend’s eyes that are sparkling with a dangerous light.

 

“No, Mattie, you wouldn’t dare… would you?” the drummer gets scared, trying to back off and get up, but Matt is faster than him.

 

“I’m already daring!” the younger guy laughs, throwing his mate on the ground, straddling him.

 

Matthew ignores the protesting Dominic as he paints the point of Dom’s nose, adding long straws, like cat’s whiskers.

 

“Aaww, my little, sweet kitten is so cute!” the brunet comments, satisfied by his work. “So we’re even.” he adds, throwing the brush on the ground and getting up.

 

“Hell no, I don’t think so.” Dominic growls, as he grabs the brush, brandishing it like a sword, before chasing after Matt who, figuring out the situation, has already decided to cut and run.

 

They run three times around the living room and the kitchen and then when they are in the living room again, Dom plays it clever and manages to cut across Matt’s path, knocking him down on the soft carpet.

 

Dominic blocks the brunet with the same strategy Matt used on Dom before, and then he paints his revenge on the frontman’s face.

 

“*Now* we are even!” he declares fiercely, getting up.

 

Firstly, Matt runs towards the mirror next to the television, in order to find out what Dominic did to him and he looks at his reflection, with a big pair of glasses painted on, with two painted eyebrows, thick, raised up with the final part down, to give Matt a never-ending pissed off expression.

“Dominic James Howarrrrrrrrrrrrd!” Matthew roars, and there’s no need to have the painted eyebrows, since he’s pissed off for real.

 

His only answer, the blond peeps out, next to him, staring in front of the mirror.

 

“Matthew James Bellamy, don't you dare complain! It’s not like I look any better than you!”

 

After that clumsy, funny view in front of their eyes, the previous tension is replaced by tan uproar of laughter,

 

“Oh my!” Dom burst out giggling.

 

“What if our fans saw us like this?” Matt chuckles.

 

“What if a paparazzo took a picture of us right now? It would be one hell of scoop!” Dom replies, holding his stomach.

 

They calm down and Matt gets closer to his best friend, staring at him with languid eyes.

 

“Tell me, Dommeh, is it normal that I find you incredibly fascinating even like that?” he wonders, as he caresses the blond’s face, being careful not to touch the paint.

 

Acting like the cat that Matt turned Dom into with his paintwork, the drummer begins to purr.

 

“I don’t know if it’s normal, I just know that it’s mutual, because I also find you so damn irresistible!” Dom murmurs, caressing Matt’s hair, before pulling him closer for a long and tender kiss.

 

When they part, the paintworks on their faces are a little smeared, but still very visible.

 

“You know, all this stuff is giving me a certain idea… “ Dom informs his mate, inviting him to sit on the ground with him.

 

“I’m listening.” Matt murmurs, eager to know what his partner is plotting.

 

“To listen is not enough, first of all you have to take your clothes off,” the other explains, as he takes Matt’s t-shirt off.

Dominic pulls closer the paper plate with the colours before taking the brush and dipping it into the light brown.

"Matt, do you remember when we had those henna tattoos?"

"Hell yeah I remember, Gaia almost broke my leg." Matt replies, wincing at the memory.

"You can say that again! Don't make me think about the black eye Jessica gave me!" Dom grumbles. "However, with those tattoos we got very close to that, but now... baby, would you like a body-painting experience?" he adds coyly, quickly putting the memories with his ex aside.

 

Matthew smiles and lays down, with his back on the floor.

"I'm your blank canvas: fill me." the singer invites his boyfriend, with a silky voice, but then he realises what he's just said. "I mean, fill me with paint. At least for now." he clarifies.

"Cheers! Don't worry. I'll take a mental note for later." the blond sniggers mischievously and then he concentrates and starts to trace his partner’s chest with the paintbrush, making him moan at its soft touch.

Continuing on with his activity, Dom's creation finally becomes clear after adding the finishing touches with dark brown.

"Done!" he exclaims, admiring with satisfaction at the result.

Matt goes back to the mirror, to see, almost touched, the initials of their names, that 'M' and that 'D' written in a very elegant italic, placed in a way so that one letter seems to be the extension of the other and vice versa.

"Oh, Dommie." he murmurs, wearing a sweet smile.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm quite good." the blond shrugs, as he stares at his own nails.

Matt gets closer to his lover.

"Is there any chance for me to reciprocate?" he breathlessly asks Dom, caressing the soft fabrics of his lover's t-shirt that the singer can't wait to strip off him.

"Help yourself!" Dom smiles in response, simply raising his arms in acceptance of Matt's unspoken demand.

"I'm not as good as you, but I'll try my best." the brunet informs him, as he chooses to use the black paint, since it's a colour that has always fascinated him, starting to draw a symbol that fascinates him as well.

He begins to paint Dom's belly, giving the drummer an extremely nice feeling every time the brush draws concentric circles on his body.

 

Once Matthew is done, Dom rushes towards the mirror to look at himself, appreciating those spirals around his nipples and belly, three spirals that join in a mystic junction on his abs.

 

“Well, well, you’re no slouch at the painting, my dear!” compliments Dom whose grey eyes gleams with a lustful look, as he walks towards him.

 

Matthew knows that look very well ad smiles in anticipation.

 

“What are you thinking, baby?”

 

“That I’ve never made love with a fresco.” the drummer smirks.

 

“But Dom! We’ll spoil all the painting, they aren’t dry yet and… “ Matt makes his best friend notice, but the elder guy shuts him up with a violent kiss that makes them fall on the floor.

 

“Do you really think that that is going to stop me?” the blond laughs as he crawls on top of a willing Matt. “Besides, am I wrong or you told me I had to fill you?” he adds, passing his tongue on his teeth as he pulls down his own boxers and quickly disposes Matt of his.

 

 

“Get ready, I’m going to put my brush into your palette!” the drummer smirks before going into action.

 

“You, piiiiig!!” Matt screams, enjoying the moment.

 

\--------------------------------------------------

 

It’s perhaps useless to say that when they’re done, their beautiful artworks are reduced to a messy blur which made no sense whatsoever.

 

“Alright, it’s three days to our first year together… it seems that we’ve just found the way number 12 we missed to celebrate it!” Matt comments, naked and very pleased.

 

“Do you mean paint-sex? I totally agree with you it was fun!” Dom nods, naked and pleased as well. “What about a shower together now?” he suggests.

 

“Uh, do you mean a revision of way number 11? Sounds bloody good.” the younger guy approves excited, following the blond upstairs.

 

\-----------------------------------------------------

 

Once they’re freshened up, they go out and after a romantic night walk along the lake, Dom and Matt come back home, getting ready to go to bed.

 

Or rather Matt immediately go under the covers, but it takes Dom much longer, since he’s busy with all is beauty products, the night routine. After that, he brushes his hair in front of the huge mirror that dominates their bedroom.

 

It’s a gift that the frontman ordered directly from Paris, in time for the drummer’s birthday, after giving very specific details about the way he wanted it to be.

 

Details that have been utterly fulfilled: the mirror has a golden frame, studded with gems that reminds the frontman of the colour of Dom's eyes. The colours ranges from deep emeralds and pale aquamarines to shades of jade, onyx and amber

It cost a fortune to the frontman, but every time he sees Dom smiling so happily when he looks at himself in that mirror Matt knows that it was worth it and he’d do the same again and again.

 

“I’m so glad that you like it!” he states, smiling at the blond.

 

“Are you kidding me? Like it? I LOVE it! I mean, my favourite object that comes from my favourite Country and was bought by my favourite person? You spoil me Matty!” Dom smiles back at the brunet, reaching for him under the covers.

 

They snuggle a little bit, but in the meantime Matthew keeps staring intently at the mirror.

 

A kinky idea is forming in his mind.

 

“Dommeh, I know that we already found twelve ways to celebrate our anniversary, but would you mind if we go on and think about next month, too, testing way number 13?” he suggests, kissing Dom’s hair.

 

“Of course, I don’t mind, what do you want to do, honey?” the blond whispers in Matt’s ear, keeping his lobe between his teeth.

 

Barely containing his self-control, Matthew gets up from the bed while inviting his mate to do the same.

 

Matt takes Dom’s hand and walks with him towards the present for the drummer’s birthday.

 

“You know, we’ve never made love in front of a mirror. Think about it: you, me… and Jamie. It could be fun,” Matt suggests, as he kisses the blond’s shoulder.

 

“Yep, but... what? Don’t you have a reflection? Oh, sorry, I forgot. You are VladyMatt, vampires don’t have a reflection.”

 

“Dom! Enough with this bloody story, will you ever quit it? However, for the record, I have a reflection, of course, but I’m not so stupid to give it a name.” the brunet points out.

 

“Hey! It’s not a stupid thing,” the blond protests. “Anyway, don’t worry, you don’t have to find a name for your reflection,” he informs his listener.

 

Matt sighs with relief.

 

“I’m going to find a name for it. It will be Jamie II.” Dom decides.

 

Matt will never ever admit that, but after all he doesn’t think that that idea is so bad.

 

“Okay, let’s try. Whatever happen, we must focus our eyes at the mirror. “ Matt instructs Dom, or rather his reflection. In a word, Matt instructs Jamie.

 

Dom nods and after a quick kiss, Matt places himself behind the drummer, pulling down both of their boxers, the only garment they’re still wearing.

Matthew prepares Dominic for himself as they both stare at the mirror, observing their reflected expressions.

They are so turned on that they can't hold it any longer.

"See? It looks like Jamieee II is making Jamie weeeeeeeeeaaally happy," Matt moans ah he pushes himself inside Dom.

"Oh God, yeees! But it seems that also Jamie II is enjoying himself aaaa lot as he makes Jamie soooooo happy!" the blond strikes back, exhorting his partner to increase the rhythm.

When they both reach the highest pleasure, almost at the same time, the look of pure satisfaction on their reflected faces is something unique.

Dominic turns, staring once again at the corporal Matthew, before kissing him hungrily.

"Yeah, deal. This is going to be way number 13. Can't wait to January! But next time, Jamie will be on top."

"We'll see." Matt protests, kissing the blond back.

*****************IN THE MEANTIME************************

Teignmouth

Chris and Kelly are in their bed.

They already took care of their kids who now sleeps peacefully in their rooms, also thanks to the never-failing lullabies that their father sings to them, with his mellow and relaxing voice.

The two lovers are watching their laptop, in the middle of the bed, to check one last time the details of the journey that they have to face the day after.

"Oh, honey, I can't wait to spend a whole week in Rome. You, me and the kids. It will be fantastic!" Kelly says, hugging her husband tight.

"You're right. After all, I've never managed to visit that town properly, since we are always in hurry when we are touring, but this time I'll have time for everything," he smiles. "Anyway, it would be nice to spend some days just me and you, alone. I heard that Venice is so romantic. Think about it, my love, you and me on a gondola." he murmurs, as he places kisses on her neck.

"Mm, I know, honey, it would be amazing, but we already had that speech. We can't. What about Alfie, AvaJo and Frankie? No way that we're going to entrust them to my mother or yours, we already use those poor women way too much. Plus, to fly from Rome to home and then back to Venice makes no sense." his wife makes him notice.

Out of the blue, Chris recall two certain dear friends of his who owe him a lot and he hasn't asked them any favour yet.

"Kelly, we'll manage to go to Venice all alone. Trust me, I have the solution."

TBC


	2. II: At Christmas time you can

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s time for decorations. Start thinking very weirdly! And Chris has something to ask to his friends…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for kudos ^^
> 
> Warnings: crazy, crazy, CRAZY stuff and Fluuuuuuuuff!!!

"WAKE UP, WAKE UUP, WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE UUUUUUUUUUUUUP!" Matt yells as he goes upstairs, beating hard the lids of some pots together and jumping to be even noisier.

Dominic immediately wakes up, jumping off the bed.

\- Oh my god! An earthquake! A storm! A flood! An hurricane! A twister! A cyclone! A gale! -

He thinks terrified before focusing on who is the real natural calamity.

\- Nope, only Matthew! - He realises, as he looks daggers at his boyfriend.

"Bells! What the hell is wrong with you?" he snaps, busily rubbing his eyes.

 

"It's late." it's the plain explanation his partner gives him.

Dom takes a glimpse of his alarm clock, on the night table, finding out that it's 8:00 a.m. and then he resumes looking daggers at his boyfriend, even more than before.

"Dammit! Could you please explain to me in which remote, lost, untraceable, parallel universe, 8:00 a.m. on holiday means that it's late?" the blond asks him, almost growling.

"In the universe where we have to adown our Chwistmas twee! The paint is dwy!" the brunet informs the other, cheerful.

Actually, the paint is dry since the day before, but they decided to let the Christmas balls rest all night long, for good measure.

"Okay, but... why if the idea is mine, now you are more excited than me?" the drummer questions Matt, doubtful.

"Because your idea happened to give me an idea as well, and I've been working on that a lot!" the frontman reveals, hyper-excited.

Dom is almost afraid of asking his mate that thing.

"Matty, honey... how long have you been up?"

"I've just took the third double coffee and that should be enough to make you refrain from investigating how long I've been up, because, twust me, you don't want to know!" the brunet strikes back, bouncing.

"Well, at least that explains why you're so hyped-up." Dominic rolls his eyes.

"Do you want to test how hyper-active I can be, mm?" Matt suggests, allusively.

"No way! Now my caffeine-addicted dear you go downstairs and let me prepare myself properly! After this sharp awakening I need a lavender, ginseng and camomile bath, to recover!" the blonde rejects the brunet's offer, chasing him away and locking the door of the bathroom for good measure.

 

When half an hour after, utterly restored, Dominic reaches Matt in the kitchen, the brunet welcomes the blond with a bright smile and the breakfast he prepared for him, with a red rose in a bottle of glass, in the middle of the table.

 

"See? When you want to you really know how to make someone forgive you!" Dominic smiles at his lover, pecking his lips, before settling down to eat the delicious looking meal in front of him.

 

Luckily for Dom, it's well-known that Matt is a quite a good chef.

Because of the relaxing bath and the delicious breakfast, Dom is in a really good mood, that's why he accepts pretty willingly to welcome whatever Matt is going to show him.

After all, he's ready for everything, he's well aware of his boyfriend’s oddities, but truth is that this is one of the two hundred millions of reasons why Dom loves Matt.

Matt takes Dom to the living room, making him sit on the sofa, as he puts on the table, one by one, his bizarre creations, as excited as a stand assistant during a fair.

"Firstly, I added a tiny bit of originality to the usual festoons that you can find everywhere," Matt starts as, full of pride, he shows the red, silver and golden festoons with attached little spaceships, all identical, that Matt has patiently drawn, coloured, cut out and pasted, ten spaceships for each festoon.

"As you can see, these are the Zetas that follow their path, orbiting around the twee." he explains, thrilled.

Dom stares at him puzzled.

"It's very original, no doubt about it, but... what's the matter with Christmas?" he tries to make the singer reason.

"So, you're saying that aliens can't celebrate Chwistmas! Well, my dear, this is what I call discrimination, shame on you; I thought you were a different person!" Matthew pouts and crosses his arms on his chest, like a baby who is not allowed to do something.

Dominic has no other choice.

"You're right, Matt, your speech is flawless. I don't want you to accuse me of discrimination, so we'll put your beloved aliens on the tree!" he gives in.

"I knew you'd agree." the brunet beams, relieved.

“And now the pièce de résistance; you know, I wanted to cover the whole tree with glitter, but I don’t think it would have appreciated that much,”

 

“Mostly it would be a little... lethal to that poor tree!” the blond nods, as he silently thanks his lucky stars for that glimpse of good conscience in his boyfriend’s mind.

 

“That’s why I decided to cover with glitter its tip, but with a little modification,” the other announces.

 

“What do you mean with ‘little modification’?” the blond starts to worry.

 

“Now I would need one of your drum rolls, but don’t worry, we can do without it,” Matt comments, leaving temporarily and then he comes back, holding something.

 

“Ta-da!” he sings-song as he shows Dom with not very hidden pride the tip for the Christmas tree, with a golden glittery banana pasted on it.

 

“Do you know that bowl of artificial fruit we have near the front door, as embellishment? Well, I thought that one of those fruits could meet a much more glorious fate.” he explains.

 

This time, Dom doesn’t hesitate one bit, he really likes that decoration.

 

“Oh, Matthew, I’ve always said that you’re a genius! My fucking genius!” he smiles, getting up and walking towards his lover, in order to kiss him.

 

“If I’m your genius, why don’t you rub my lamp?” Matt tempts his mate between kisses, bringing Dom’s hand on the crotch of his own jeans.

 

“Don’t tempt me!” the blond manages to resist, parting from him. “Plus, weren’t you the one who kept saying we’re late?” he reminds him.

 

“That’s right, we have a lot of work to do!” Matt agrees.

 

In a few minutes, they’re more than ready to start.

 

Matt climbs a ladder and, happy as a child, he puts the precious tip on the tree and then he decorates it with the festoons, starting from above.

 

Dom works on the bottom of the Christmas tree, putting the leopard printed balls that they have successfully created the day before.

 

As the two guys are busy in that pleasant task, the TV keeps them company, tuned on one of their beloved Italian channels, of course.

 

Matthew has seen his favourite ads so many times that he started to memorise some jingles and now he wants to test how well he did that.

He has only to wait for the right ads and he doesn’t have to wait for long.

 

“A NETALI PUOI FAWE QUILO CHI NO PUOI FAWE MAI/ E’ NETALI I A NETALI SI PUO’ FAWE DI PIU’/ E’ NETALI I A NETALI SI PUO’ AMAWE DI PIU’/ E’ NETALI I A NETALI SI PUO’ FAWE DI PIU’/ PER NOOOI/ A NETALI PUOOI.” Matt sings at the top of his lungs, towering above the voice of the singer on TV.

 

It’s not very difficult for Matt to do that, since the singer on TV is a little girl.

 

“So you finally learned it all, didn’t you?” Dom grumbles as he keeps putting the Christmas balls on the other side of the tree.

 

“Yes, but I must improve with the pronunciation of the words, especially the main ones,” the other recognises, with spirit of auto-criticism.

 

“Funny! You know that you have to improve, but you don’t know the meaning of those words,” the drummer makes fun of him.

 

“Of course I do! Do you really think I’m so unprepared? I invented a false account and asked for a translation of the lyrics on ‘Yahoo answers’ and someone has been so kind to help me,” the singer informs him.

 

“So please enlighten me, what does it mean?” his boyfriend asks curiously.

 

“At Chwistmas time you can do what you never can do/ It’s Chwistmas time and at Chwistmas time we can do so much more / It’s Chwistmas time and at Chwistmas time we can love so much more / It’s Chwistmas time and at Chwistmas time we can do so much more / For us/ At Chwistmas time you can!”

 

“Nice message!” Dom comments, before they switch roles.

 

A few minutes after, there’s another of the front man’s favourite jingle.

 

“VOWEI CANTAWE INSIME A VO/ IN MEGIC ARMONI/ OGURI COUCA COLA I POI/ UN COWO IN COMPANI/ CANT INSIMI A NO” Matt yells again, trying as hard as he can.

 

“Damn you, Bells, you’ll end up making me fall from the ladder this way! At least warn me before your crisis starts! ” Dom snaps.

 

“I can’t, they start out of the blue,” the other justifies.

 

“What? Your crisis?” Dominic wonders.

 

“Nope, the ads!” Matthew laughs. “Do you want me to translate this one to you?”

 

“Don’t worry, I’ll try to survive even without it,” the blond rolls his eyes. “However, it’s so good to see you so overwhelmed by the spirit of Christmas!” he smiles.

 

“It’s not about the spirit of Chwistmas, it’s just that I happen to like those songs!” the brunet explains. “Besides, the last one wasn’t even about a typical Chwistmas cakes, but about a drink, it has such a catchy melody,” he states, before TV rewards him with another appreciated adds.

 

“PIANO, PIANO/ BUONO, BUONO/ PIANO, PIANO/ BUONO, BUONO/ PIANO, PIANO/ BUONO, BUONO/” Matthew sings carelessly, until the end.

 

From above, the blond stares at the brunet, questioningly.

 

 

“No, I don’t know what this means, but it’s the easier one to pronounce, besides, it’s a gospel, how could I not love it?” the guitarist justifies, as he finishes setting the last festoon. “Well, it wouldn’t be so bad if I created a compilation, something like ‘Matthew Bellamy sings the jingles from the most beautiful Chwistmas Italian songs’” he suggests.

 

 

“Firstly, to say that title it would take people at least two hours and two lives to memorise it. Secondly, as you already said, you still have to work on the pronunciation, a lot, so far the last jingle it’s the only one you sing decently. Thirdly…” the drummer starts his list of criticism, before the pianist cuts him off.

 

“What if I made you sing in the chorus?” Matt suggests, persuasive, knowing very well that that is one of Dom’s weakest points.

 

“Really?” Dom asks, his eyes filled with hope, as he goes down the ladder.

 

“No way, of course!” the others disenchants him. “But it’s so much fun to make you believe that!” he sneers, evilly.

 

Dominic narrows his eyes at him, very pissed off.

 

“Overwhelmed by the spirit of Christmas, my ass! You, Matthew James Bellamy, are worst than the Grinch!” the blond hisses, turning the TV off.

 

However, seeing the result of their work, Dom can’t be angry with Matt for long and Matt knows that.

 

“We did a wonderful job, didn’t we?” the singer murmurs, hugging Dom from behind, tenderly and smelling his hair.

 

“Yep, we are such a good team.” the percussionist nods, satisfied.

 

Matthew would like to take advantage of the moment to steal a kiss from his mate, but the magic is interrupted by a phone call.

None of them feels like answering to the phone, so they let it ring, allowing the answering machine to do its job and after the buzzer someone speaks.

// Hey, you two, lovey-dovey, what are you doing? Too busy cooing to answer? // Chris cheerfully teases them.  
  
// I know you are there but you don’t want to answer, you fucking lazy asses! // he goes on, making his best friends laugh.  
  
// Whatever, I don’t need you to talk, just listen to me. I’m travelling, so far we are in Milan. Kelly and the kids are going to fly to Rome, I’ll meet up with them later, first I have to pay a visit to someone… you guys! It’s been a while since I’ve been there, after all, but mostly I have something really important to tell you… or rather to ask you. See you later, I should be there in half an hour. // their friend warns them, hanging up.  
  


“This is such great news; I missed our dear big guy!” Matthew exclaims.

“Yeah, me too. So the troublemaker trio is back. Besides, he'll give us some feedback about the changes we’ve made in our decorations and other stuff, after all, it's been ages since he came here." Dom comments.

Time seems to fly and Chris arrives at their house.

 

They invite the bassist in, as excited as never.

The first thing Chris notices is the huge framed picture that’s hung above the front door. In that picture there's Matthew, on the right, grinning as he wraps an arm around an even more grinning Dominic who wraps an arm around Matt’s waist and with their free hand they touch Pinkie who is in the middle.

According to Matthew, in that picture his beloved trolley is grinning, as well!

"Please, don't tell me that that is... your..." Chris stutters.

"Yep, it's our Family portrait!" Matt nods happily.

"Every proper family must have one," Dom adds happily.

 

"So how is Pinkie?" Chris decides to get along with them.

"He's fine, perhaps even a little too much," Matt reveals.

"Why?" Chris asks them, a little concerned.

"Damn me! Why the hell should I worry for the state of health of a... suitcase?" Chris reproaches himself.

"Oh, c'mon, didn't you see how many trolleys of his same colour are around lately? I'll tell you, what, Pinkie, that son of a gun, must have had his fun when I let him free to wander around the airports... and now those are the consequences!" Matt comments.

"I didn't know that even trolleys could be in heat!" Chris jokes.

"Believe me, they are, one of these day I'm going to castrate him," Matt states, thoughtfully.

"Are you... you are joking... right?" the bassist wonders, very concerned.

"Trust me, he's not joking at all," Dom assures his friend, since he already knows that story, as he stares at his lover in concern.

"Matthew, dear, how do you exactly castrate a trolley? Do you take his wheels off or something like that?" Dom asks, strangely curious.

"Well, now I want to know that, too!" Chris admits, curious as well.

Matt stares at them in deep silence and then he bursts out laughing.

"You know what? I was about to believe you. Oh, c'mon, like you didn't already know that!"

It's useless to say that his answer leaves Dom and Chris stunned.

"Well, let’s not waste any time, after all this is only the entrance, there's a lot of new stuff you must see!" Dom changes the topic, as he leads his friend around the house.

They arrive at the living room and there's something that immediately draws their guest's attention.

"What the bloody hell is that… thing?" he asks them, scared, pointing at their tree.

"It's our Christmas tree, it's cool, isn't it?" Dom smirks.

"That monstrosity can't be a Christmas tree! I mean... the leopard-printed balls! Where the hell did you find them?" Chris wonders.

"Nowhere. I painted them on my own and Matt helped me," Dom replies.

"Yeah, that brings me to such good memories!" Matt sighs with dreamy eyes.

"OK, I'll turn a blind eye over the spaceships, but... on the top there's a banana, for God's sake!" their friend grumbles.

"So? It's yellow, as well!" the front man shrugs.

"That's not a good reason why to replace the traditional comet with it!" Chris makes him notice.

"Look, it's a fake banana, I didn't put on top a real one. I don't want a rotten banana on my Chwistmas twee!" Matt points out.

"There shouldn't be any kind of banana, to begin with!" Chris insists fast starting to lose his usual patience.

"Why not? Everyone has a comet star... I have a comet banana!" the singer smiles, proudly.

"Dom, didn't you tell anything to him?" Chris asks his friend.

"Why? I happen to like that decoration! It's so original and Matt is such a fucking genius!" Dom states, proudly as well.

Chris realises that it's a losing battle and gives in.

"Gee, don't be always so critical, buddy, you should relax a bit more. Would you like to play darts?" Matthew invites him, giving him some darts and pointing to the dartboard.

Chris accepts but stops just when he's about to throw his dart.

"Wait a minute. Why in the middle there's a picture of My Chemical Romance?" he wonders, puzzled.

"Because they're a very good incentive to spur me to hit the centre! Since I've put that picture I improved a lot!" the pianist sneers as Dom rolls his eyes, in disappointment.

"I still don't understand why you always try to hit poor Gerard Way!" Dom protests, snatching the darts from Matt's hands, before he could damage even more that part of the picture.

"Ok, enough with the darts. Let's talk about you. Did you decide to declare that you are together? Last Summer you seemed very intentioned to do that." Chris changes topic.

"Yep, but then we changed our mind again. For now only the people we really care know about us and that's enough." Dom explains.

"Yeah, we'll do things in a big way in 2012. After all, everyone will be dealing with the end of the world, so no one will mind at us." Matt informs his friend.

Chris doesn't even try to strike back. It would be another losing battle.

"You know what? Matt didn’t' even want to hang outside a door plate that I made for him. He should have put it near the ring, instead he put just a door plate with our banal initials, it could be everyone's initials!" Dom snorts.

"Dommie, I understand your affection, your cuteness and everything, but... you wanted me to hang outside a door bell with the written 'BellaWard Home'!" Matt strikes back.

"Our surnames melt into each other so wonderfully!" Dom beams.

"Yep, but at least you could avoid drawing all those hearts around it!" Matt makes him notice.

"I found that cute!" the blond justifies, scratching Matt’s chin, as he was a big cat.

“Why the bloody, flaming hell did I make that fucking question?” Chris curses silently, disconsolate.

"I do, too. That's why we hung it on our bed!" Matthew smiles at his boyfriend, kissing the point of his nose.

"Hey, Chris, do you want to see it?"

"What? Huh! Nope, thanks, I guess I don't want to see anything that belongs to your bedroom!" their friend grumbles, visibly awkward. “And you two are way too tender and sappy towards each other, stop it, right here, right now!” he orders.

Dom parts from Matt, both snorting their disappointment.

"So Chris, we're glad to have you here and everything, but... at the phone you said you wanted to ask us something..." Dominic reminds the bassist.

"Yeah, what’s about?" the brunet asks curiously.

"You know, actually... I 'm not so sure anymore about what I wanted to ask you." Chris confesses.

"Oh, c'mon, you know that you can tell us everything!" Dom incites him.

"Okay, as I told you, I'm travelling with Kelly and the kids. We'll stay in Rome until 20th Dec, but, you know... I also planned to spend some time alone with Kelly, in Venice," the bassist explains.

"And the kids? Who would care good care of them? Oh!" Matt figures out the answer on his own.

"Yep, that’s correct. It would be you two the lucky ones, also because you owe me a lot and you know that! It could have been the perfect revenge." their best friend states. "But after what I saw today I'm not sure anymore that this is a good idea..." he adds, wavering.

“Oh, c’mon, you can’t have already changed your mind just because of that crap, pretty please! Bring the kids here it'll be fun!” Dom exhorts him.

“It shouldn’t be only fun, it should be safe, conscientious, responsible, too!” Chris makes the blond notice.

“It will be, it will be all this stuff and much more. Really, Chris, you can trust us, we’ll be impeccable with your kids, besides, it’s been so long since we’ve seen those lovely little pests,” Matthew chuckles.

“After all, I’ve already booked it all... and I don’t want to screw it up.” Chris mumbles.

“You won’t have to. Please, trust us. After all, we’ll spent here all the Christmas Holiday and then we’ll have a short trip to Devon, to our families,” Matt explains.

“And then in Paris, for New Year’s Eve.” Dom concludes, with dreamy eyes at the thought.

“Okay, you convinced me. Now I’ll go to Rome. I’ll take you the kids on 21th Dec, then Kelly and I will come back on 24th afternoon, to take them home to celebrate Christmas,” Chris informs them as Matt and Dom walk him towards the exit.

“Don’t worry, you won’t regret it!” Dom assures.

“I wish.” Chris rolls his eyes, leaving.

“Honey, can’t you imagine it? We’re going to have three kids running through our house for some days. Isn’t it wonderful?” Dom cheers, throwing his arms on Matt’s neck, once they are alone.

“Yep, but it also means three days of absolute abstinence from… you know what. Did you think about it?” the brunet makes his mate notice.

“Huh, that’s right. Well, this makes it...less wonderful!” the blond states.

“But we’re going to make it! You know what? Maybe we’d better burn all our left energy up, before … going into hibernation,” Matt suggests, allusively, bending over to kiss the blond but Dom parts from him.

“You know what? We’ll start abstinence from today! In two days there will be our first anniversary, so we’ll be really charged for that!” Dominic decides. “Thank you, honey, you gave me such a wonderful idea, as always!” he adds, leaving.

Matt watches him go, before rolling his eyes, frustrated.

“Why the bloody hell don’t I ever shut up?”

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here’s the link where you can find the Italian adds in question (by the way I made Matthew sing them is not pwoper Italian, of course, saving the last one (piano piano, buono buono means ‘slow slow, good good’) , lol ) ;)
> 
>  
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAqeg8n9BAM (little girl singing )
> 
>  
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoNwuXV266w (Coca Cola)
> 
>  
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aElrIJFxWA (gospel)
> 
> Well, as you can imagine, in next part the kids will arrive... finally! ^^
> 
> about the family portrait, a huge, super special THANK YOU to Ivonne, since she gave me the idea, back to the ‘How did it come to this?’ era, as she was betaing a chapter she said ‘You know what? I imagine some kind of Family picture: Matt, Dom… and Pinkie!’ ^^
> 
> I told her it was an amazing idea... and it’s one of the main reason why this sequel came, so let’s thank her! ^^
> 
> And she’s so lovely that she actually made a ‘family portrait ‘ for me.. isn’it wonderful?
> 
> http://i54.tinypic.com/35iohdz.jpg
> 
> Plus, I’ve got the idea for the darts part when a friend of mine, Roby, showed me this lovely (100% BellDom) picture:
> 
> http://i54.tinypic.com/rlwe49.jpg
> 
> Hope you liked this part and had fun reading it.
> 
> Cheers!


	3. Chapter III: Famous last words...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The baby-sitting begins... as well as the chaos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you sooooo much for support :)
> 
> Warning: language
> 
> Author’s notes: Forgive me, I didn’t describe their anniversary in every, slightest, sexy detail. You know, I guess that too much NC17 stuff would spoil this story somewhat. Instead of NC17, I chose something terribly sweet … hope you won’t mind…

They succeeded.  
It was hard, very hard, but they succeeded. Matthew and Dominic have spent two days of sexual abstinence.  
Sure, each of them has spent several minutes locked in the bathroom, several times per day, satisfying himself screaming the other’s name, imagining that it was the other doing those things to him and vice versa.  
They have been wise enough not to do that in front of each other, because they knew that they wouldn’t have resisted and would have ended up jumping each other’s bones.

That’s why the day of their anniversary, especially the night, was memorable.  
The two Englishmen have celebrated it with all their twelve planned ways, suffering from a sort of mutual addiction.

After wearing each other out with the way number twelve, the shower, for the record, which they saved for last on purpose, since it’s very late the two lovers get ready to sleep.

“You set the alarm clock, didn’t you?” Dominic asks for confirmation as he lay down his side of the bed.

“Yep, this is the fifth time you ask me that. I set it for 10:15 a.m., that will give us time enough to fix everything up.” the brunet assures his mate, controlling the alarm clock one last time for good measure.

“Yeah, we have a lot to fix up. From tomorrow on we’ll have some special guests, three lively kids.” the blond smiles.

“Three little, lovely, little devils who won’t make us get bored for sure!” Matthew chuckles, turning the lights off.

“Matthew?” the blond calls him out.

"Mm?" the other mumbles, with his eyes closed.

"I felt good this night. I felt incredibly good. Actually, I've been felling incredibly well for one whole year." the drummer murmurs, searching for Matt's hand in the dark, as he's used to do.

Matthew opens his eyes.

"Me too. And I guess I'll never thank Chris enough for that forfeit that made everything start between us. It happened a year ago, well right now, a year and a day ago." he smiles in the dark, squeezing affectionately his mate's hand.

"If I think that we have closed the door on this happiness for years. It could have happened before, much before." Dom comments.

"I know. Probably we've been liking each other since... always, we just had to figure that out." the frontman states.

"Lucky for us, we did. I love you, Mattie." the drummer whispers, smiling as he reach out in the dark, searching for his boyfriend's face and mouth, kissing him softly.

"I love you, Dommie, you can't begin to imagine how much I do." the brunet kisses the blond back the same way.

"If it's how much I love you, I can begin to imagine that." the other chuckles. "We needed that."

"We needed what?"

"I mean, we shagged like bunnies tonight and it was fucking amazing, exciting, everything... but we also needed this kind of speech. Some sweetness is not so bad once in a while." his partner explains, ready to come back to his side of the bed.

"Don't." Matthew stops him.

"Are you planning something?" Dom asks him, allusively.

"It's not what you think. Oh, c’mon, I guess we did a lot of dirty and kinky stuff tonight. But you're right, some sweetness is not bad once in a while, so… what about kissing each other until we fall asleep?" the brunet suggests shyly.

His only answer, Dom straddles Matt and caresses his spiky hair, placing his own soft, full lips on the brunet's.

No matter how tender their purpose is, they don't last further than ten minutes doing that.

After all, all the previous wild performances really wore them both out, so much that Dom doesn't even manage to reach his side of the bed, but collapses directly on Matt's chest and the singer doesn't seem to be disappointed by that.

That's how the morning after still finds them.

The alarm clock accomplishes its ungrateful mission and rings at ten o’clock, leaving our two heroes without any chance but to wake up and they lazily pop their eyes open.  
“Mmphh..” Matt groans, making that hellish noise end with a harsh slap on the alarm clock.  
“Wise move,” Dom approves, going to his side of the bed. “After all, ten o’ clock is way too soon, if you set it for eleven o’clock it’s fine, there’s time for us to do everything,” he adds.  
“I totally agree. Let’s set it for half past eleven. Life is just too good in bed.” Matt grumbles, crouching himself close to Dom.  
“Yep, let’s stay here, under the covers, enjoying the heat, just for another little while,” the blond insists.  
“Yeah and you know what? I won’t even set the alarm clock again. We will be able to wake up on our own in one hour, one hour and half at the utmost, won’t we? Let’s let our natural biorhythms do the job!” Matthew babbles before falling asleep again as the bond already did.  
\----------------------------------------  
Another ring wakes them up. This time is the phone.

Dom stretches his arm towards the night table, as Matt curses, burying his head under the pillow.

“..llo?” Dom answers to the call, or at least he attempts to, lifting the receiver at the fifth ring.

“Hey, Dom, it’s Chris here. We’ve just landed to Milan, now we’re going to catch the first available taxi and we’ll reach you in a while. See you later!” Chris cheerfully informs him, before hanging up.

Dom is still busy recording that info in his brain and then, a little fearful, he turns to the alarm clock and he doesn’t like what he sees, definitely not a bit.

“BLOODY HELL, MATTHEW, IT’S TWO’ O CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON, IT’S BLOODY LATE!” he yells, panic-stricken.  
Matt immediately gets up, alarmed as and even more then Dom.

“FUCK, IT’S SO FUCKING LATE! WE JUST HAVE ONE HOUR, ONE HOUR AND HALF IF WE’RE LUCKY AND THERE’S TRAFFIC!” the frontman screams.

“WEREN’T WE SUPPOSED TO WAKE UP ON OUR FUCKING OWN? WEREN’T WE SUPPOSED TO LET OUR SODDING BIORHYTHM DO THE JOB?” Dominic recalls with a blaming, very loud tone.

“OUR FUCKING BIORHYTHM SUCKS A LOT OF DICK!” Matt snaps, but basically he’s angry with himself, because he knows it’s just his fault. “OKAY, WHERE DO WE BEGIN FROM?” he asks his mate immediately after.

“FIRSTLY WE SHOULD MANAGE TO QUIT YELLING LIKE FUCKING IDIOTS, IT WOULD BE GREAT!” Dom points out, yelling.

“I CAN’T, I’M TOO BLOODY AGITATED!” Matt justifies, as he starts to collect their clothes, all around the room and in the corridor.

“ME TOO. BUT IF WE GO ON LIKE THIS, WE’LL BE HOARSE IN FIVE MINUTES!” the drummer makes his partner notice, as he collects their sexy-toys from the floor and other stuff, such as a jar of honey, one of Nutella, whipped cream, paint and brushes and some horsewhips .

This is enough to calm Matt down.

“No, wait, I need my voice, I must work on the new songs, too.”

Dom concentrates for a while and calms himself down as well.

“Okay, the damage is done, so now we must find a solution, let’s hurry up. Lucky for us, we already had a shower. First things first, this bed must disappear!” Dom commands.

“Why?”

“You know, kids like running everywhere. What if they go in our room and see a double bed? This could confuse them,” the drummer points out.

“You’re right. Wait. It means that also if they see that we share the same room they will be confused,” Matt makes him notice.

“Uh! Yeah, I hadn’t thought about that. The bed can stay here, I’ll move to the guest room. So it will seem that I’m staying here at your house temporary, just like good friends,” Dom suggests.

“I don’t want you to be only a good friend to me!” Matt protests.

“Neither do I, but we must act like that. C’mon, it’s only for three days, we can survive!” Dom comments.

They reach the guest room and make the bed up.

“If only we had the time, we could do on this bed some wild stuff that would leave you a very good memory of me during these three days,” Matt murmurs, nibbling Dom’s ear.

“Mm yeah, it would be good but we CANNOT. There’s no time to waste. I’ll set the living room up; you’ll think about the kitchen… gee, why the hell did we have sex in so many places?” Dom rolls his eyes.

“You do know why. And don’t pretend to complain!” Matt strikes back, before rushing to the kitchen.

\- Yeah, I know and I would do that again and again and again… - Dom smiles, heading towards the living room.

\-------------------------------------------------

They still wonder how the hell they managed to do that, but when the bell rings, Matt and Dom are more than ready to welcome their guest and their house is as clean as new… or rather they set up all the places that needed to be cleaned the most.

The complete Wolstenholme family makes their entrance and the kids immediately run towards their beloved ‘uncles’ who hug them happily.

“When I told the kids that they will spend three days with you they were overexcited!” Kelly explains, smiling.

“Of course! I want uncle Matt to teach me how to play guitar!” Ava-Jo declares, before Matthew lifts her in his arms.

“You surely have what it takes to succeed in three days, Missy!” he smiles at her.

“Then I want uncle Dom to teach me how to play the drums!” Alfie requests, tugging at Dominic’s sweater, to make him understand that he wants to be lifted up too.

The drummer instantly pleases the kid.

“That’s right. I’m going to put you to the test, champion!” the blond promises.

Frankie prefers to be held by his dad’s strong arms.

“I don’t care, because Daddy will teach me how to play the bass and I’ll be better than you two!” the youngest kid sing-songs.  
“Alright. I need a heir in our family who follows in my footsteps!” Chris chuckles.

“What’s an heir? And what are footsteps?” the little boy asks him.

“When a person leaves or can’t do the things he used to do anymore, the heir is the person who he leaves all he has got to, or the one he teaches to do the same things he did, to replace him in the future and if this person does it, we can say that this person follows in the other person’s footsteps,” his dad explains to him, with a simple language.

“I understood.” Frankie nods, before something draws his attention.

As a matter of fact he begins to wiggle to be left on the floor and when Chris pleases him he runs towards the Christmas three, followed by his brothers.

“Cool! There are aliens!” the youngest kid exclaims in awe.

“The Christmas balls are so cute, I had never seen such original ones!” the eldest one beams.

“It shines!” is all their sister manages to say, staring at the banana on the top, almost hypnotized.

“Oh my, that’s so cute! You decorated the Christmas tree in such a peculiar way to amuse the kids!” Kelly says, smiling gratefully at Matt and Dom.

“Oh yeah, of course. For the kids!” Dom, Matt and Chris answer in unison.

 

After leaving the kids in front of the TV, tuned on English channels again for the occasion and letting a good cartoon do its job, the four adults chat lively in the kitchen.  
Matthew does the honours of offering to his guests pastries and Italian coffee that he has learned to prepare properly.

"Thanks again for offering to look after the kids. You're doing such a big favour to us!" Kelly comments, as she sips her coffee.

"Well, honey, let's say that it's not that Matt and Dom spontaneously offered to do that, I forced them. You know, they owe me a very big favour!" Chris corrects her as he stirs his coffee.

"We would do it willingly regardless! Your kids are so lovely, I'm sure we'll spend three serene and carefree days," Dom replies, swinging on his chair in order to lean and peep at the children as they watched TV.

Matt confines himself to nodding.

"However, is it extremely unbearable for you?" Kelly wonders.

"What?" Matt absently asks her as he crunches a patisserie.

"Not to exchange endearments in front of them." Kelly replies.

Matthew chokes with his patisserie and starts to cough, risking suffocation, but Dom intervenes promptly, patting his back hard.

"Kelly, are you nuts? What are you blathering about?" Dom acts vaguely, as he makes Matt drink some water.

"Guys, it's useless to pretend, she knows." Chris informs them.

"But... " Matt protests weakly.

"Yep, I know, but don't blame Chris, it's not his fault, he didn't tell me on his own, but I sensed that he was hiding something to me. So I interrogated him mercilessly and I managed to wring the truth from him," she explains.

"So… how did you react?" Dom asks her, wavering.

"What do you think? After all, I'm here and I'm entrusting my sons to Matt and you. I was very happy when Chris told me what happened between you, you are so cute together! After all, I wasn't so surprised! C'mon! I've known you for a lifetime and I immediately noticed that there was a strange alchemy between you two, something that can't be catalogued as simple friendship.” she states. 

 

"Really?" Matt and Dom wonder in unison, with the same idiot smile plastered on their faces.

"So... why haven't you ever told us anything about it?" Matt asks her.

"How was I supposed to? I mean, it's not such a simple topic to face! I couldn't take one of you aside and say something like 'Hey, think about it, it's not that maybe you are in love with your best friend, is it?' It was something that you had to figure out on your own. Besides, when you were engaged with Gaia, Matt, and you with Jessica, Dom, I thought I was wrong," she reveals.

"Twuth is that we were wrong." Matt admits, smiling at his Dom.

"Yeah, but all's well that ends well. So did you enjoy Rome?" Dom changes topic, feeling a little awkward.

"It's awesome. Nice people, wonderful places, we also found a very good weather," Kelly comments, excited. "That would be the perfect picture, if only whenever Chris saw a newspaper kiosk he didn’t go crazy. Geez, how many collections there are in Italy? Chris practically bought the first number of everything, from miniature cars to gardening, from playhouse to modelling, from PC courses to foreign languages lessons, Italian too! We'll need a new suitcase only for the stuff that he bought!" she confesses, as she glares at her husband.

"You know that I have a thing for collecting things!" Chris justifies. "By the way, guys, I have already taken a subscription at the kiosk near your house, not to miss the next numbers. So you'll have to retire all the supplements for me. That's the second part of my revenge and don't you dare to make me miss a number!" he summons his friends.

"I should have known that we couldn't repay you only turning in two bay-sitters!" Matt grumbles.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your evil plans of revenge, honey, but we must hurry up. The taxi is outside waiting for us and we have the flight in two hours," his wife recalls as they collect their stuff.

"Thanks again, guys! See you on 24th! I'm sure I'm entrusting them to very good hands!" Kelly says goodbye, before going to the living room to hug her sons.

"I'm not so sure about that. Besides, this is very important, don't you dare to make my kids learn any bad words!" Chris states, before hugging his friends.

"It won't happen, we will be flawless surrogate-parents!" Dom assures.

As soon as their biological parents leave, something in the three children's mood changes.  
Maybe feeling melancholic, they quit watching TV and head towards the kitchen, looking for Matt and Dom.

The adults welcome them and offer them the pastries, as Matt promptly replaces the coffee with coke and orange juice.  
The kids enjoy that banquet a lot.

"Alright, here we go. Alfie, Ava-Jo and Frankie," Matt commences. "Have you ever thought about suing your dad because of the names that he gave you?" he adds.

The children stare at the singer in confusion.

"What is ' to sue'?" Frankie asks him.

"Never mind, kids, uncle Matt always feels like joking!" Dom intervenes, snickering nervously, as he stamps Matt's feet.

"Ouch! What did I say wrong?" Matt asks himself out loud, as he cleans the table.

"Let's see if I have a good memory. You, Alfie, are eight years old; you, Princess, are six years old and you, Frankie, are the littlest one," Dom comments.

"I'm not little; I'm already four years old!" Frankie protests lively, feeling insulted.

"He's four years old and he can say the 'r ' words much better than you!" Dom teases Matt in a whisper.

"Hey! You know it gets harder for me when there are too many consonants in the middle!" the other justifies.

Assuring himself that the kids can't see them since they're busy talking among themselves, Dom skims Matt's hand, fleetingly.

"I adore when it gets harder for you!" the blond winks at the brunet and then they reach the table with their little guest.

They sit in front of them but an awkward silence falls upon everyone.

"Wasn't it supposed to be easy and pleasant?" Matt whispers at Dom.

"Maybe we need some warming-up first," Dom grumbles.

Ava-Jo is the first one to break the silence.

"I want Mommy!" she whines with tearful eyes.

"No, no, no, this is not good. C'mon, you must be happy, you're here with uncle Dom and uncle Matt, it’s forbidden to feel blue." Dom incites them.

"That's right, we're going to do lots of funny things together. You know what? Let's make a cake!" Matt suggests.

"Yaaaaaaaay!!" the kids exult in unison.

After all, every child likes the eventuality of playing with food and getting dirty.

Dom and Matt prepare all the necessary stuff on the table. Matt takes advantage of that to wear his beloved apron.  
Obviously, Dom prefers his clothes-less version, but he's well aware that that's not the proper occasion to be pleased.

Frankie and Ava-Jo assist Dom whilst Alfie helps Matt.

It's useless to say how much fun the kids have mixing the flavour with the water, rolling it and breaking the eggs.

Time seems to fly.

Once it's ready, Dom spreads the mixture out in the baking pan.

"Perfect, now let's add the smocked ham, the spinaches and the mozzarella," Dom instructs them.

"Alright, Alfie, now add the apricot jam and the dark chocolate chips," Matt states at the same time as he's turning his back, engrossed in the preparation of the custard.

The two adults realise too late what they have said and the kids do exactly as they're told.

"Dominic! What the heck did you do? We have decided to make a cake!" Matthew protests, staring at his mate confused.

"That's right. A smoked ham cake, for dinner. That's what I was doing." Dom justifies, staring at his partner confused as well.

"But I meant a chocolate cake, for dessert!"

The children burst out laughing madly.

“See? At least now they’re amused,” Dom smirks, but he definitely changes his mood when he sees the so-called cake with all the ingredients that are blending and turning into a disquieting colour. “Although now... here we go with a disgusting, uneatable … thing!” he complains.

Matthew is observing it as well, but his expression is closer to curiosity than revulsion.

“Do you think so? What if we bake it anyway? Maybe we could have found out the recipe of the century!” Matt suggests, scarily intrigued.  
“What?! You’re joking… aren’t you? I’ll tell you what, now I clean the kitchen up and you get rid of that horrible thing. NOW!” Dom orders, authoritarian.

“I guess we’ll take five pizzas for dinner, do you agree, guys?” Matt informs them, before going out to throw his supposed ‘recipe of the century’ away.

The kids yell in jubilation and that’s a rather eloquent answer.

Matt comes back, after taking out the rubbish, with the emptied baking pan.

“Where are the children?” he asks Dom.  
“What? They followed you outside… didn’t they?” Dom asks Matt.  
“Nope, I thought they were with you as you cleaned up.” Matt replies.

They exchange a very alarmed look.

“Oh, my God!” the blond exclaims.  
“Where did they go?” the brunet thinks loudly, before they set off in the pursuit of them.

Unluckyly for them, their house is extremely big.

****************************** (In the meantime)

The airplane has been flying across the sky for more than half an hour.  
Kelly stares at the landscape from the window whilst Chris seems to be concerned and his wife notices that.

“What’s wrong?” she asks him.  
“I’m thinking about Matt and Dom looking after our kids. I don’t think it was a good idea. I hope they won’t do any damage!” he grumbles.  
“Don’t worry, dear. You know what? We’re going to call them as soon as we land, but I’m sure that everything is alright, c’mon, whatever could happen?” she reassures her husband.

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What’s going to happen? You’ll find out in next chapter ^^
> 
> A little disclaimer: I took inspiration for the ‘recipe’ thing by an episode of ‘Friends’ (my favourite comic series along with ‘Scrubs’) where Rachel blends together two recipes, indeed ^^
> 
> Hope you’ll like it, but feel free to tell me everything.


	4. IV: Hide and Seek, Shopping and Fairytales.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title says everything

"Okay, let's try to calm down, they can't just disappear," Matt realises.

"Yep, saving the fact that they could be anywhere!" Dom adds, worried.

"That's right. And we'll search for them everywhere, starting from the last place that they were. I'll look outside, maybe they followed me before, you inspect the whole living room, under and behind the sofa and inside the closets!" the brunet instructs him.

As they’re about to start their hunt...Matt's mobile rings.

"Fuck, it's Chris!" the frontman frets, staring at the display.

"I knew it!! He already found out what happened and he's going to kick our asses!" Dom comments, more and more concerned.

"No way, it's only a coincidence. Besides, how can he know that? What? Does he have a sort of sixth sense?"

"Well, maybe a Gypsy read his hand and saw that we lost his kids!"

"Don't be ridiculous! Where the hell could Chris find a Gypsy passenger, in First Class?"  
The rings become four.

"I don't mean a passenger, but a new First Class airline service: a Gypsy will read past, present and future on the passengers' hands." Dominic explains.

"They never invented such a service!" Matt protests.

"But they could have invented it recently! There would be positive effects, think about it! It would prove that the flight is safe, no Gypsy who can foresee the future would want to be on a flight that they already know is going to crash!" the blond reasons

"You have a point, but we'd better answer Chris’ call, if we miss it, he’ll be even more suspicious!" Matt decides to pick the call up at the eight ring.

"Sorry, mate, I had no idea where my mobile was!" Matt lies...

-Just like I have no idea where your kids are!- he thinks as he turns the speaker on.

"You're always so absent-minded!" Chris makes fun of him. "So, what's up?"

"You know, Dom has just had the idea of the century, something that will change the destiny of the airlines!" Matt informs his friend.

"What?" Chris wonders, puzzled.

"Don't mind him!" Dom snorts, glaring at Matt who is teasing him.

"Guys, I would have called you after the landing, but I couldn't resist any longer, how are the kids?" the father asks lovingly.

"They're alright. Thank you for calling, have a nice holiday!" Dom intervenes, as he's about to end the conversation.

"You always feel like joking, Dom, you'll never change!" Chris chuckles.

"Jokes aside, they are good. We cooked something all together before, it was fun!" Matt tells him.

\- And it was a disaster, too. We almost poisoned your kids! - Dominic ponders.

"Alright, I guess they were very happy. So can I talk with them now?"

"No!" the drummer says, harshly.

"Why not? Has something happened? Please, guys don't make me worry!" the bassist agitates.

"No, no, how can you even think certain things?" Dom calms him down. "It's only that... " he hesitates, looking at Matt for some help.

"We can't make you talk with them now, because... because... we're playing hide and seek!" the pianist finds a brilliant escape route.

"Right and no matter if we already saw that Frankie is inside the closet, in the living room, Alfie is behind the plants and Ava under the table, in the kitchen, we can't make them understand that we've already found them, can we?" the blond replies playing along.

"You're right, you can't. Hide and Seek is their favourite game ever." Chris informs them.

-Bingo! - Dominic thinks sarcastically.

"I guess that you should make them believe you can't find them anywhere, for at least half an hour." Chris advises them.

-This is easier than you think.- the drummer realises.

"I always act like that with them. You know what? I'll call you when the airplane lands, in about half an hour! See you later" their friend greets them.

"Alright. I guess that’s our problem is solved!" Matt comments, satisfied.

"Just.. how the hell? He said he will call in half an hour!" Dominic makes him notice.

"So what? You said that we found them!" the frontman points out.

"Geez, Bells! Didn't you get that I made it all up?"

"Do you mean that Frankie is not inside the closet, in the living room, Alfie is not behind the plants and Ava is not under the table, in the kitchen?" the singer sadly asks, looking for confirmation.

"Nope. They're just the first places that popped in my mind." the other explains.

"Dammit! You were so convincing that I believed you, too!" Matthew rolls his eyes. "So we'd better go looking for them, we only have half an hour to find them!"

They're about to go in the directions they have established before Chris' call, when they hear a horrible sound of a distorted, amplified guitar out of tune.

"Well, well , looks like we've just found one out of three." Dom smiles.

"My Glitterati!" Matt exclaims, alarmed.

"Excuse me, how can you be so sure that it's just that guitar?" his partner looks at him astonished.

"I can feel it." the guitarist mutters, placing a hand on his heart. "Whoever is doing that to my baby is going to pay for this!" he swears, as he's about to rush towards the music room.

Dom stops him, grabbing a leap of his sweater

"Calm down, they're just kids!" Dom makes him reason, but immediately after he hears an awful, uncoordinated sequence of toms and cymbals.

"Fuck! My drums! Who the hell dares to touch my baby with his dirty hands, smeared with butter and flour? I swear that if I find them..." the blond snaps, as his nerves are on edge.

"Calm down, they're just kids after all!" Matt mocks him.

"Okay, change of plans! We calm down, we count until 30 and then we go to catch them." Dom suggests.

"Okay, but we'd better count to 50!" Matt suggests.

Once they give out even the fiftieth deep breath, relieving all their tension, they head towards the music room, when they find the guilty people: Ava, with Matt's guitar, just the Glitterati for the record, and Alfie at the drums.

"We are good, aren't we?" Alfie wonders, with his eyes filled with big expectations with a look could melt down an iceberg leaving Matt and Dom defenceless.

"Well, let's say that you have a very personalised style!" Dom finds a gentle euphemism, smiling at them, as Matt does.

"Ava, honey, why among all the guitars here you picked up just this one?" the frontman patiently asks her.

"They are all beautiful, uncle Matt, but this one... shines!" the little girl grins, before her guilty conscience hits her. "I’m sorry if I've made you angry! I should have asked you before.." she adds, staring at the floor, concerned.

"I could never ever be angry with you," Matt smiles at her, hugging her tight. "It's just that when I said that I would taught you to play the guitar, I didn't mean my guitars, especially this one!" he clarifies, very calmly, helping her to take off the strap of the guitar and putting his beloved guitar back to its place.

"That's why we'll buy a little guitar for you!" he announces to her.

The little girl grins madly.

"Great idea! And we'll buy something for you, too, Alfie! Little drummers need little drums!" Dominic winks at the little boy.

"Really, uncle Dom?" he exclaims happily.

"Yep, but.. no hugs!" the blond points out almost horrified, staring at the still smeared little hands.

"But firstly we need to find your brother," the brunet adds.

"Frankie didn't follow us;" Alfie asserts.

"This is not good news!" Matt rolls his eyes.

"But we saw him go upstairs, maybe he's in our room." AvaJo suggests .

\- Why have I the feeling that he's in one of *our* rooms? - Matt ponders and Dom reads his mind with a look.

"Wait for us in the living room and get ready to go out. We'll be right back!" Matt informs the kids.

"Alfie, since you didn't follow the lovely example of your sister... go to the bathroom to wash your hands!" Dominic instructs him as he stares upset at his drums and drumsticks smeared of flour and butter.

-As soon as I'm back, don't worry, baby, I'll clean you properly! - he solemnly swears.

 

Everyone leaves the music room. Alfie washes his hands and then joins his sister in the living room as the adults go upstairs.

They don't even glance at the kids' room and rush directly towards their room that now is only Matthew's room.

And they see the cutest show ever: Frankie is jumping on the bed, giggling madly, as he wears a too large a leopard-printed shirt that makes every movements of his clumsy.

Before he falls from the bed, stumbles or hurts himself, Matt and Dom stop him, making him jump off the bed.

With Dom's huge relief, it seems that Frankie followed his sister's good example and washed his hands.

This makes him even more lovely to Dom's eyes, as the kid seems to almost sink inside that shirt.

Also Matthew is staring at him as if he was the cutest thing in the universe.

"Frankie, where did you exactly find that shirt?" Dom asks him, a little worried.

"It was under the bed!" the kid replies "It's so beautiful, I like these colours so much!" he adds in awe.

"That's where I had put it!" Dom slaps his forehead. "This is your fault, since you’re the one who always throws everything around!" he scolds Matt in a whisper.

"Oh, c'mon, don't deny that you like to do things in a messy way too!" Matt whispers back and Dom shows him half smirk.

The two musicians set Frankie free from that shirt, ignoring his complains and then they go downstairs, where the other two kids are waiting for them.

The two adults dress Frankie properly, Matt wraps a scarf around his neck and Dom pulls his hat down over his eyes, when Frankie draws something out from the pocket of his jeans and shows it to his brothers.

"Hey! Look what I've found!" he exclaims.

With panic-stricken eyes, Dom and Matt stare at the fluffy leopard-printed handcuffs that hang out from the little boy's tiny fingers.

 

"Cool! Where did you find them?" Alfie asks his brother.

"Under uncle Matt's bed!" the youngest kid explains.

"How many bloody stuff ended under that damn bed?" Dom whispers at his mate.

"You know, Frankie, truth is that sometimes uncle Mattie likes playing with uncle Dommie," Matt explains as Dom glares at his boyfriend. "We play the rob and the cop and to make it all more realistic we use the handcuffs!" the brunet adds, saving his partner from a very awkward moment.

"That's cool!" Alfie approves, as Ava doesn't seem to care about that kind of topics.

"Yeah, instead of normal handcuffs we use fluffy ones because they're trendier!" Dom justifies. "Do you know what trendy means?" he asks Frankie.

"Yeah, I know, daddy explained that to me, it means that it's the fashion of the moment," the little boy diligently explains.

"Can you give them to us?" Alfie asks the adults, pointing at the handcuffs.

Dom and Matt exchange a troubled look.

"Let's make things this way: we keep them and to the list of our purchases, we add also toy handcuffs, a toy truncheon, a toy badge and a toy gun!" Dom negotiates.

"Alright!" Alfie and Frankie exult in unison.

After all, the stores will be closed in three hours, they have time for everything.

A few minutes after they enter in the megastore, Matt's mobile rings again, but this time he immediately answers, without even looking at the display.

"Yeah, Chris, now you can talk with them, hold on," Matthew announces, turning the speaker on.

"Okay, but... what's all this noise? Where are you?" their interlocutor asks.

"At the megastore, we just arrived." the frontman answers.

"So you found my sons earlier than supposed." Chris figures out.

This catches Matt off guard.

"There was no need to search for them, we just said the magic words 'If you come out we'll go shopping and buy lots of nice things!' and they ran to us" the blond helps him.

The kids look at them in confusion but Matt gestures them to shut up.

"Brilliant idea. Blackmail always works with them!" Chris chuckles.

Matt brings the mobile closer to the children.

Alfie is the first to speak.

"Hi, dad!"

"Hi, little man! So are you having fun?" Chris asks him.

"A lot! Uncle Dom is going to buy the drums for me!" he informs him, overjoyed.

"And uncle Matt is going to buy a guitar for me!" AvaJo cuts her brother off.

"Hey, Dom! Matt! Don't spoil our kids too much, otherwise they won't want to come back home anymore!" Kelly intervenes.

"Moooooooooooooooooooooooom!" the kids exclaim in unison, excited.

"Hi, kids, I miss you so much, but don't worry, mommy and daddy will be back soon!" she murmurs.

"Why don't I ever get such a response?" Chris complains a little upset.

"That's a mommy thing!" Kelly giggles, handing the mobile back to her husband.

"Daddy, I’ll wait for you to buy me the bass when we're home!" Frankie points out.

"We'll see, maybe Santa Clause will bring it to you," his dad reveals to him.

"No, daddy, don't annoy Santa, I already wrote the letter to him, he already knows what he must bring to me, don't confuse him!" his little son protests, making all the adult laugh as he wonders why.

They go on chatting for a while, both with their mom and dad, as Dom and Matt stare softened at that lovely family picture, until Frankie takes control.

"Anyway, now we have to go, otherwise the stores close ad we have tons of trendy stuff to buy! Bye!" he greets them for everyone, hangs up and hands the mobile back to its kind of bewildered owner.

Alfie pulls Matt by his right arm, AvaJo by his left arm and they try to drag the singer towards the music store that they caught a glimpse of.

"Well, well, someone seems to be in hurry!" Matt chuckles.

"Go with them, I'll remain here with Frankie." Dom nods, lifting the little boy in his arms. "So, champion, I guess we can start with the policeman kit that I promised to you!" the drummer comments, but as he walks towards the toy store, his attention is captured by a shop window, where a beautiful leopard-printed jacket seems to wink at him, hung on a mannequin.

"That's sooooooo cool!" Frankie states, as enchanted as the percussionist by that vision.

"Do you mean that you like it?" Dom smiles at him.

"Yeah I do, a lot! Just like the shirt that I found under the bed. It reminds me to the cool Christmas balls on your Christmas tree!" the kid confesses, excited.

Amused by that answer, Dom glances at the Armani Junior store and an idea tickles his mind.

"We'll visit the toy store later, now uncle Dom is going to buy you something very nice!"

\--------------------------------------------------------------

About one hour later, after Matt gave the poor clerk the third degree until he didn't fully convinced the frontman that his purchases that would be delivered to his door in a couple of days were extremely good, Matthew and the two kids reach Dominic and Frankie at the take-away pizza where they have decided to stop for dinner.

As Frankie shows his brother all the toys Dom bought for them, Matt can't stop admiring the little boy in those skinny, black pants, that leopard-printed shirt with a black, velvet jacket and a leopard-printed Texan-cap that matches the shirt.

"Oh my! He's a tiny... you!" he murmurs at Dom, as he keeps watching the little kid, almost touched.

"Yep, and he likes those clothes so much that he doesn't want to take them off anymore!" Dom informs his lover, as touched as well. "Just think about how good he would look with some meshes...” he adds.

He and Matt look at Frankie one last time and then they exchange a look.

"Do you think that the hairdresser is still open?" Dom asks him with nonchalance.

"No, Dom! Chris would kill us!" Matt reasons, after some seconds of hesitation.

"You're right," Dom reasons, too.

"Although blond he would look so lovely!" the brunet states.

\---------------------------------------------------------------

When they come back home, the kids can't stay up for long.  
After all, among journey, changes and all the emotions of the day it's normal that they are worn out.

Matthew and Dominic realise that and help them to change their clothes, tucking them up in the big bed they three share, with AvaJo in the middle.

They kiss the kids goodnight and are about to turn the light off, but AvaJo doesn't seem to agree.

"Uncles?" she calls them out. "Can you tell us a little fairytale, pretty please?" she wavers, but her brothers approve that idea.

"Yes, please, fairytale!" they plead.

Dominic and Matthew can't say no to them.

They go back to the kids who make room for them on the bed.

"Okay, do you have any books?" Dominic wonders.

The kids shake their head negatively.

"Make a story up, daddy always does that! He's incredibly good at that" Alfie informs them.

It's enough to wake up the demon of competition that harbours in Matthew.

"I can do that, too. What's the problem? Let me concentrate," the singer announces, waiting for the proper inspiration and then it comes.

"Once upon a time, there were three worthy princes, named Chrusten, Damian and Mythian," he starts the tale.

"I already like these princes!" Dom comments with a smirk, as he prefers being a simple listener and leaving the role of storyteller to Matthew.

"These princes ruled their kingdom with goodness and wisdom. Their subjects adored them and paid visit to them very often, showing them their support. Everyone knew about the famous princes' deeds and even the farther kingdoms loved them. The princes usually went abroad in order to meet the subjects of the foreign kingdoms," Matthew says.

The kids listen to him enraptured, without daring to cut him off.

"Thamius, the princes' counsellor, decided that they have to be known even further, beyond the kingdom they had reached until then, that's why he sent them to NewLand. The three princes accepted that assignment and left, filled with excitement, ready for that new adventure.”

"Was NewLand very far?" AvaJo asked.

"Yep, the three princes travelled for three whole days, stopping sometimes in some place, before keeping their trip." Matthew replies.

"What? Does it mean that there was no private magic carpet... as they were used to?" Dom frowns.

"Nope, because Thamius had taken it to reach his secret lover, the counsellor of an enemy kingdom. Thamius had asked Chrusten to replace him while he was away with her," his mate explains.

"What a terrible counsellor! I hope that once he's back, Prince Damian will fire him or at least punish him, closing him in the dungeon for a couple of days!" the blond grumbles.

"We'll see. In the meantime, our heroes had reached their destination, but things were different there. NewLand was ruled by King Newbie and his friends. They always dressed in black and they had banned happiness from that kingdom. Also their subjects dressed in black or purple at the utmost, and were all depressed." Matt reveals.

"Oh no, poor people! Why were they so sad?" AvaJo asks in concern.

"Because it was King Newbie's law and they had to obey if they wanted to remain in that kingdom," the frontman explains.

"That's not true!" the drummer protests.

"Hush! I'm the storyteller and I say that things went like that! Besides, King Newbie never allowed the three princes to stay with the subjects of that kingdom for too long, they just have to prepare the fans... err I mean the subjects for the arrival of King Newbie and his band who stayed with them for much longer!" Matt explains, snorting at the memory.

"So King Newbie had turned the three princes into his slaves!" Alfie figures out, alarmed.

"Yeah, in certain sense he did. Thamius couldn't foresee that and prince Chrusten, his substitute, tried his best to keep the kingdoms in good terms, not to make a war start. Anyway, prince Mythian didn't want to subdue, but the worst thing was that prince Damian was starting to like that kingdom!"

 

"How could he like it? Everyone was grey and sad there!" Frankie comments in awe.

"You know, sometimes prince Damian was very strange and he had very questionable tastes!" Matt chuckles as Dom glares at him.

"Truth is that, although they hadn't a lot of time, the few time they spent with the subjects was enough for the subjects to start to like the princes, especially Damian. After all, he was kind with everyone; it was part of his behaviour, it was impossible not to adore him!" Matt goes on, glancing at Dom who smiles at him.

"In the meantime, prince Mythian was trying to make the subjects open their eyes, making them aware of their bad situation and exhorting them to react."

"Really?" Alfie asks, very intrigued by the plot, as his brothers listens a little more relaxed.

"Yep, but the wise prince Chrusten had warned prince Mythian, telling him that it would be dangerous to go on challenging king Newbie who was starting to figure out that something was wrong,"

"So did price Mythian listen to him?" Alfie asks.

"I don't think so. Prince Mythian can be such stubborn sometimes and always does as he pleases!" Dom reveals to him, giggling.

"Guess what? He's right. Prince Mythian went on with his attempt to make the crowd revolt, but king Newbie had a plan to stop him. He knew that prince Mythian had a weak point: all the princes were big friends and had spent their youth together, but between Damian and Mythian there was a special friendship, stronger than anything. King Newbie wanted to break their bond, that's why he cast a spell to prince Damian, in order to bring him to his side."

"And... did he success?" Alfie wonders.

"What the heck are you babbling? This has never happened, you're always so exaggerated, Matt! I don't even want to know how this story goes on!" Dom snaps, insulted, getting up and reaching the door.

"You're free to go, then. There's someone who wants to hear the rest of the story," Matt strikes back.

"Yes, yes, please, uncle Matt, stay, I want to know everything!" Alfie pleads, as AvaJo and Frankie have already fallen asleep.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere," Matt smiles at the kid.

"Goodnight, uncle Dom!" Alfie greets him, waving his hand.

"Yeah, goodnight, uncle Dom!" Matt sneers with a cocky attitude, as he watches his partner go and then he turns to his very interested listener who is hanging on his words.

"So, we were saying..."

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really have no idea where the hell this 'fairytale' popped from.
> 
> However, if you caught every reference, from king newbie and his friend to NewLand, etc... you deserve an applause.
> 
> In case you didn't, you deserve an applause anyway, because you keep bearing and supporting my stupid, crazy fluffy stuff!!
> 
> Fell free to tell me everything, even 'You're crazy!' is a comment, lol!


	5. V: It's time to play

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kids are always full of questions… will Matt and Dom have all the answers?

“Uncle Dom, uncle Dom!” calls out the little AvaJo, inside her pink pyjama, as she knocks at his door, shyly.

Lucky for her, Dom is a light sleeper and immediately gets up, walking towards the door and opening it.

“What’s up, little Princess?” he smiles at her.

“I tried to wake uncle Matt up but he didn’t answer!” the little girl informs him.

Glancing at the alarm clock Dom realises that it’s 8:30 a.m. and, saving for rare exceptions, when he’s on holiday Matthew is hardly aware of that time in the morning.

“You’d better not disturb uncle Matthew, he likes sleeping,” the blond explains to her.

\- I can’t say the same about you! - he ponders.

“Frankie, Alfie and I have been already up for half an hour, we waited for a little time, but then we got bored and we made the counting rhyme in order to decide who had to wake you up and it’s me!” she reveals.

“Nope, dear, there’s no need for counting rhyme, you can come to us whenever you need something, but it’s better if you turn to me!” he answers.

"Okay, it's just that we wanted to have breakfast. You showed us where the kitchen is and everything, but mom says that we should never have breakfast on our own, especially when we're not home, it's not nice. When we're home, we always wait for mom to have breakfast and for daddy, too, when he's home with us."

"Oh, little dear, you should have told me immediately. Let's go call your brothers, too, so I can give you a super breakfast!" he assures, leaving the room with her.

In a few minutes, all the kids are gathered in the kitchen, around the big table, as Dom fills their glass with orange juice and their mugs with milk.

"Kids, are you ready for something new? This morning you're going to have an Italian breakfast!" the drummer informs them, opening a closet where he draws out every type of cereal.

It’s such a various assortment that could make a supermarket section envious.

“Choose what you want and enjoy your meal!” he smiles, giving them the cereal boxes.

The kids rejoice and eat excitedly, exchanging the boxes between them to taste different cereals.

Dominic assures himself that they don’t eat too much, as he prepares a coffee for him, a strong coffee, in order to wake himself up properly.

After they ate, there’s time for some chatting.

“Yesterday you fell asleep at the most important part of the story!” Alfie states, before taking his mug to the sink and after a while his brothers follow his example.

\- Well, well, Kelly really taught them the good manners! - Dom muses, observing the scene pleased, as he’s absently reading a fashion magazine, sat on the sofa, not far from them.

“The story was very beautiful and uncle Matt is such a good storyteller… but we were so tired!” AvaJo justifies.

“Can you tell us the story?” Frankie asks him.

Alfie nods proudly, happy for being useful.

“When did you fall asleep?” he asks them.

Dom likes listening to the kid as he sums the story up, his way, and then the drummer’s curiosity overpowers his stupid pride, so he finds himself listening to the rest of the fairytale that he still ignores.

“So King Newbie manages to do what he wanted, because he casts his spell to prince Damian and he behaves in a bad way with prince Mythian who ends up in jail, because prince Damian tells the guards that he’s a rebel. Prince Chrusten tries to stop them but he ends up in jail, as well, because he helped his rebel friend,” Alfie comments.

Dom rolls his eyes, disappointed by what he hears.

“Oh no, prince Damian turned evil!” AvaJo concerns.

“Nope, this is the coolest thing! Prince Damian just pretended to be dominated by king Newbie and argue with prince Mythian, making him end in jail, because his will is stronger. He pretended to become friend with king Newbie, in order to find out his weakest points. As a matter of fact, prince Damian finds out that the secret of king Newbie and his friend’s strength is a glooming float that there is in the yard of the castle. The night of this discovery, still making king Newbie believe that he is by his side, prince Damian goes to the jail, he frees the other two princes and tell them that it was only a charade. And then, all together, they burn the float and when king Newbie and his gang realise that it’s too late!” Alfie goes on.

His brothers listens to him totally enraptured, but the most amazed is Dom who smiles.

“What happens after that the float is destroyed?” Frankie wonders.

“The ones who dominated are weaker, so it’s easier to defeat them!” the eldest brother explains.

“Oh. So at the end the princes kill them and rule that kingdom, too?” AvaJo asks him, with a hint of disapproval in her tone.

“No way, the princes are not violent. They defeat king Newbie and his friends, but they don’t eliminate them, they made them promise that the king will behave better with his subjects. Besides, he and his gang learn how to be less sad so happiness comes back in their kingdom.” Alfie finishes.

“This is such a beautiful story!” AvaJo sighs happily.

Dominic keeps listening and observing them, chuckling, until he glances at his watch, realising that it’s 9:35 a.m.

\- This is definitely a less dangerous time of the day. - the blond ponders.

“Kids, stay here, I’m going to wake uncle Matt up!” he announces , turning the TV on and tuning it on the first available channel with cartoons.

As soon as he find one, the kids sit down and watch it, almost as if they were dragged by a magnet.

Seeing what cartoon he has chosen, Dom forces himself not to giggle: it’s a Disney cartoon with Huey, Dewey and Louie and the blond recalls the absurd theory that he told Matt about Huey and Dewey.

“So when we’re back, we get ready to go out and we’re going to take you to a beautiful place,” the drummer promises, but the kids are so engrossed watching TV that they barely hear him.

Dominic goes upstairs, without making noise and sneaks through Matt’s door, since the singer has left it open.

In the room everything is still dark, but thanks to the light coming from the corridor Dom manages to move easily and he reaches Matthew’s bed, or rather their bed.

He observes Matt as he’s deeply asleep, with his stomach on the mattress and his face buried on the pillow.

He doesn’t seem to have any slightest intention to wake up, but Dom knows how to make him change his mind.

“Hey, prince Mythian, look, prince Damian is here and he wants to apologise,” the blond whispers in the brunet’s ear.

That sentence works.

Matt gives out a sort of low moan, turns in the bed and pops his eyes open, aiming them at Dom with a smile.

“Let me guess, you found out how the fairytale ends, didn’t you?” he figures out, as he stirs.

Dominic confines himself to nodding.

“Good. See? It would have been worthy if you had stayed to listen to its ending,” Matt states, fully awake.

Dom nods a second time.

“So you would have found out that I had made you the hero of the situation,” the brunet goes on, sitting on the bed.

“I’ve been such a moron! I acted as an unjustified conceited person, in such a childish way, more than the real children that we have here!” Dominic admits.

“And?” Matthew forces him to go on.

“And I should trust in you much more, Mattie,” Dom murmurs, feeling guilty.

“That’s better!” the guitarist smirks satisfied. “Anyway, you’re lucky: prince Mythian is always very willing to forgive,” he winks.

“Lucky for prince Damian.” the drummer smiles back at him, before heading towards the door.

“The kids are watching TV, they have already had their breakfast, so we have to dress them and…” he announces, but Matt makes him shut up with a gesture of his hand.

“Lock the door.” Matt orders.

“Are you nuts? The kids are in the living room!” Dom tries to make his partner reasonable.

“Right, you said that. They are in the living room. Watching TV, right?”

“Yep, a cartoon.” the blond point out.

“A cartoon usually lasts… how much? Twenty minutes at least?” the other wonders.

“Yeah, but…” Dom wavers, biting his own lips.

Matt could jump Dom’s bones only because of that detail.

“Oh, c’mon, we won’t make anything too dangerous. Just some tender cuddling. Don’t you want us to be closer?” Matt insists.

The only answer he receives is Dom locking the door and reaching him under the covers.

“Just some cuddling.” Dom repeats, hugging Matt tight.

“I missed you,” Matthew murmurs, as he caress the golden locks.

“Me, too.” the other strikes back, as he rubs his face against his.

Soon kisses replaces their words, as they roll together on the bed, each one trying to dominate the other.

It’s enough just a certain touch between two certain parts of their bodies to let the two lovers know that cuddling won’t be enough.

“If we do it slow and low…” Dom suggests, as he straddles his mate.

“Very Low. We’re going to be more silent than Silence itself!” Matt agrees in a whisper.

Each one gets rid of the other’s T-shirt, blue for Dominic, maroon for Matthew, craving a more intimate contact between their bodies.

Their caresses start to become more demanding and that makes them both moan in delight, but the two lovers notices that.

“This is not good, they’ll end up hearing us!” Matt whispers.

“You’re right. Wait, I have an idea,” Dom announces, stretching his arm in order to grab the two T-shirts on the carpet. He twists them and then he pushes Matthew’s T-shirt in the singer’s mouth.

“If you feel like screaming, bite into it. I’ll do the same with mine,” the drummer explains, before biting his own T-shirts as well.

Matt nods and they resume loving each other.

Closeness is unbearable, their mutual desire is too strong and it takes only one look for them to understand they’re aiming to the same goal.

They have already discarded each other’s boxers and Dom has started to push himself inside Matt and Matt to welcome his thrusts, locking their eyes and biting into their T-shirts as much as they can not to scream, especially when they reach their orgasm.

They part, getting up from the bed and getting rid of the now spoiled but useful T-shirts.

“Mm.. gagged-love sounds so exciting.” Matt chuckles, as he goes to the bathroom to wash himself, followed by Dom.

“Nope, Matt, we weren’t looking for new ways to have sex. It was a necessity!” Dom protests. “Besides I love talking to you way too much, but especially I love listening to your screams,” he adds, mischievously.

“You’re right. Especially I love kissing you,” the brunet murmurs, as he cups the blond’s face, giving him a short and noisy kiss. “Anyway, it was something new, I’d like to put it in the possible ways,” he insists.

“We’ll see. What time is it?” Dom changes the topic.

“Ten o’ clock. We’re slightly late,” the other smirks.

They open the door and go out.

“The coast is clear!” Dom whispers. “They must be still in the living room, watching TV,” he adds, as he and Matt go downstairs.

“Here we go, sorry for late, you know, uncle Matt is not very easy to wake up,” Dominic justifies with the kids who are staring at him in a very inquisitive way.

Dominic notices that.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asks them, feeling a little awkward.

“Uncle Dom, you wore a T-shirt before… didn’t you?” AvaJo asks him.

Matthew and Dominic realise only in that moment that they forgot to wear a change of t-shirts, since the ones they wore now lie on the floor, half-chewed and wrinkled.

"Fuck, how could we forget such an important thing? C'mon, Dom, my dear boy, think, think fast!" the blond thinks to himself, as he searches for a brilliant excuse that finally he finds.

"You're right, but I took it off, because in Matthew's room there's always a hot temperature," he justifies.

"That’s right. See? I'm not wearing a t-shirt, either," Matt nods.

"I want to sleep shirtless, too!" Alfie states.

"No, you're still too young and you must cover yourselves pretty up! Nobody is going to sleep or wander around shirtless!" Dom assures, caring like a mother hen with her chicks.

"And why do you have messy hair?" little Frankie asks the two lovers.

Dom and Matt stare at each other, realising that the kid is telling the truth.

"We have messy hair because there's always a strong wind in my room!" Matt finds a brilliant explanation, at least he thinks so.

"Wait, you said that that room is always hot, how can it be hot if there's always a strong wind?" Alfie gives them trouble with his smart question.

"They're not Chris' sons, they're Sherlock Holmes' sons!" Matt muses, as he starts to grow agitated.

"Yeah, right. It's a strong but warm wind, that's why that room is always hot, it's like a oven, you'd better never go there," Dom saves them both promptly.

"So do you want to stay here, finding more secrets about my room, or do you want Dom and me to take you to the Bellamy Lake?" Matt asks them.

"Where?" the kids ask in unison, staring at him puzzled.

"I'll tell you as we're going there. Now let's go change clothes, c'mon!" Matthew ralleys them all and the kids run upstairs, followed by the adults.

"Do you realise that we risked a lot?" Dom whispers at his boyfriend.

"Yep, they were about to become very suspicious," Matt nods. "But it was so exciting!" he smirks mischievously.

"I've never said that it wasn't!" the other reveals with the same smirk.

When they're ready, after placing the kids in the back seats of the car, Matt and Dom come back home for one last check.

"Well, the uncles are so odd sometimes," AvaJo starts.

“Yeah, besides, I was in uncle Matt’s room and there’s no wind and it’s not hot, either!” Frankie confesses.

“Plus, their hair were messy and they looked so satisfied,” Alfie goes on.

“Yeah, just like when Frankie and you wrestle for fun!” AvaJo figures out.

“That’s it! They wrestled for fun and they don’t want to tell us!” Frankie asserts.

“Yeah, that’s why they felt hot and they had messy hair. This must be the only explanation,” Alfie states.

“And they don’t want to tell us because probably daddy would scold them. After all, daddy reproaches you every time he sees that you fighting, even if it’s for fun!” the little girl explains.

“I don’t know why he does that. Sometimes I wrestle with Johnny at school, it’s so much fun!” Alfie smiles.

“That’s true. Ava, why don’t you ever want to wrestle with us? You would have fun!” Frankie incites her.

“I don’t want to. It’s bad boy stuff. Mommy always says that good girls don’t do bad boy stuff!” AvaJo justifies, looking like a little angel before sticking her tongue out at her brothers.

“Boring!” Alfie snorts.

“Sissy!” Frankie crosses his arms at his chest, bothered.

The adults reach them and, for everyone’s sake it’s Dom who puts himself at the wheel.

“You know, Matt, I’m a little afraid of going there,” Dom comments as he drives.

“Why? We won’t ever lose sight of them. And they can forget about having a bath in the lake, we’re in December. Plus... “ Matt babbles.

“Nope, I meant that I’m afraid of bringing you there. Bells, you know that it’s full of tourist shops and when you visit that kind of shop... you become dangerous!” Dom retorts, staring at him worried, without losing sight of the road.

“Don’t worry, Dom,” Matt reassures him. “If since the last time we’ve been there there’s no new arrival in their inventory, I won’t make buy anything!” Matt giggles.

“What does inventory mean?” the littlest kid asks.

“Inventory is... all the stuff that there’s in a store!” the singer explains.

“Practically it’s also all the stuff that there’s at uncle Matt’s house, scattered here and there!” Dom makes a witty remark and the kids laugh.

\---------------------------------------------------

Matt’s expectations were dashed and Dom’s hopes came true: there were no new arrivals in the stores, so Matt wasn’t possessed by the demon of shopping.

While the children, are happy, having seen that amazing lake, taking a walk through the stores and ending it in the sweetest way ever-in a nice bar near the coast, in front of a delicious hot chocolate. The perfect way to warm up a little bit.

There’s something that made that moment even merrier and it’s the phone call by Chris and Kelly. Both parents and sons told each other about the day they had, as Matt and Dom observe from distance that tender picture.

The happy gang comes back home in the early afternoon, just in time to receive the purchased musical instruments from the delivery guy who rings the bell half an hour later.

As it’s easy to figure out, Alfie and AvaJo rush eagerly towards their own instruments, Alfie even helps Dom as he sets the little drums.

After the setting, the two adults play the teacher role, giving the kids some basic lessons.

Both Matt and Dom show their respective pupil a simple exercise to repeat constantly, after a short but necessary introduction of theory.

As Alfie tries to hit two different parts of the drums with a different rhythm, without even remotely getting close to such goal and Ava tries to press, one by one, all the notes of the first four frets of the guitar, producing graceless cacophonic and trembling sounds. Matt amongst the chaos managed to keep an eye on Frankie.

At the beginning, the littlest boy had observed the lessons, but then after growing bored, he went upstairs, coming back after a while with a bunch of plastic soldiers in his hands.

As the exercises go on, more or less, Matt keeps watching over an amused Frankie who is playing on his own with the soldiers, pretending that there’s a war. However, the adult immediately changes expression when he sees Frankie getting dangerously closer to the Christmas tree.

“Okay, kids, let’s have a break, we all need it!” the front man establishes, placing carefully both his guitar and Ava’s on the floor.

Matthew walks towards Frankie who is all engrossed trying to hang the soldiers on the tree, near the spaceships.

“Hey, little devil, what are you doing?”

“You know, uncle, first the soldiers were fighting against each other, then they understood that it was stupid and then they decided to join forces to send the evil aliens away from Planet Earth!” the little kid explains, without even looking at Matt as he goes on with his task.

“It’s such a noble and brave intention, I must admit! But your soldiers can’t even begin to imagine what they’re going to face. They’re all going to die, all of them. Zetas are not peaceful guys at all, your soldiers shouldn’t challenge them so openly!” Matt warns the little boy.

Frankie turns towards the guitarist, staring at him with very curious eyes.

“Please, uncle Matt, can you tell me all the things that you know about the Zetas?”

Matthew nods greedily; thrilled by the fact that finally someone is showing an nterest for all his twisted and paranoid theories.

“Well, Frankie, you must know that...”

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know , I know, it already happened in ‘Try Something New ‘ and ‘Eternally Missed ‘ , but the version of Matt being souvenir-addicted is something that I love way too much... and I truly believe in that, lol!
> 
> I would pay everything to listen to that speech between Matthew and Frankie for real, lol!
> 
> The title of next chapter ‘Are we really out of sight?”... but don’t think too scandalously! XD
> 
> Hope you’ll like this part as well, but feel free to tell me everything, of course
> 
> p.s. new update of 'Change' is on its way ;P


	6. VI: Are we really out of sight?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava-Jo and Alfie are on a mission!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry guys, I'm extra busy with RL and stuff.. bu I'll try to be back posting... as soon as I can :/  
> at least this is something I've already written long ago XD

Very patiently, Matt expose to the little Frankie all his theories about aliens, stopping once in a while to explain, whenever the kid asks him, words such as 'Politic', 'Government', 'Accomplice' and 'Mind control'.

Every time, Matthew tries his best to find the correct lexicon to make a kid of only four years old comprehend him, but he seems to success.

"Uncle, Matt, it's terrible! Is there something that we can do?" Frankie alarms.

"First if all, we must not be subjugated by them and ..." Matthew starts, but form the way the little boy is staring at him, the pianist realizes that he said the umpteenth way too difficult word.

"'Subjugate' means when people make someone believe what they want because they make this someone believe something, although it's not true!" the singer explains and his young interlocutor nods.

"Alright, and for a better defense we can try to boycott the Government," the adult goes on.

"Byo-toc.. WHAT?" Frankie asks in confusion, unable to repeat that very difficult verb.

\- Dammit! Now how the hell am I supposed to explain what it means?- Matt agitates, scratching his head nervously.

Dominic rushes to rescue him, like a knight in his shiny armor.

Actually, the blond has no horse and wears no shiny armor but a pair of shiny orange, skinny jeans and a grey blouse with the zip pulled down a little bit. As Dom reaches them, Matthew's main goal is to find out if Dom wears a T-shirt under that blouse or not.

Until that moment, Dom has remained with Alfie and Ava-Jo, who have flooded him with questions about their musical instruments.

After all, the blond knows one thing or two also about guitars.

However, Dom comes back to Matt just in time to hear the last part of his chat with Frankie.

“I’ll explain that to you. To boycott means… okay, imagine that at your kindergarten the teacher orders you all to draw a nice sketch because she is going to reward the most beautiful one!” Dom starts.

“I love drawing so, so much!” Frankie cheers.

“So do I!” Dominic smiles. “Coming back to what I was saying, you begin to draw your sketch, you work hard and it’s turning out very nice. You’re going to win, no doubt about that. You finished your sketch, it’s marvelous. Proud and happy, you get up to give it to the teacher, but one of your friends comes in your way and he’s not a real friend,” he warns the kid.

“Why?” Frankie wonders concerned.

Matthew confines himself to listening in respectful silence, already knowing what his boyfriend is aiming at.

-My Dom is a bloody genius, I would have never thought about it!- he muses.

“He’s not your friend, because he’s envious, since your drawing is beautiful and his is not. So he asks you if you can show it to him. You make the huge mistake of trusting him, so he grabs the felt-tips on his desk and scribbles your entire sketch. You have no more time to change it and you have to give it to the teacher that way. The teacher is upset by you, telling you that you should have tried harder and this is not good. When something like that happens, we can say that your friend boycotted you. That’s what to boycott means.” Dom smirks.

“I got it!” the little boy exclaims, although he’s a little scared after that explanation. “Uncle Matt, please, don’t be angry, but uncle Dom is better than you to explain stuff!” he reveals, a little afraid by the singer’s reaction, but he’s relieved when he sees Matt chuckling and nodding.

“I know. It means that uncle Dom now will remain with us as we go on, in order to explain to you the things that you don’t understand,” the front man decides, smiling at the drummer who agrees.

In the meantime, AvaJo and Alfie are at the table, in the kitchen, as they’re busy establishing who played better.

“It’s not true, you made horrible sounds!” Alfie declares, bothered.

“At least I played! You didn’t even manage to beat the drums twice in a row!” AvaJo strikes back, pungently.

“It’s so difficult!” her brother justifies.

“So is guitar!” his sister makes him notice.

“Okay, let’s say that we are even and we both still have to learn a lot of things!” Alfie states and the little girl nods contently.

“Do you want to play a game?” he suggests to her immediately after.

“What kind of game?” she asks curios.

“Do you see that half opened closet, right behind the sofa where the uncles sit with Frankie?”

“Yep.”

“I bet you don’t have the courage to go inside it without making the uncles see you!” her brother teases her.

“I can do it without any trouble!” his sister assures.

“Okay, let’s do it, both of us. We’re going inside the closet and the first one who surrenders and goes off is the loser!” Alfie states.

“Deal!” AvaJo approves, following him.

Matt and Dom keep talking with Frankie who overwhelms them with questions, so the other two children can reach the closet undisturbed, crawling behind the sofa and then climbing on the closet. They don’t need to take some stuff off, because there are only few magazines, some operating manuals of HI-FI and domestic appliances, the closet is almost empty.

They sit comfortably on the shelf beneath, closing the doors a little to remain more hidden.

Although the topic intrigues him a lot, Frankie begins to feel the tiredness of the day, plus it’s the second day in a row that he skips his nap on afternoon, a healthy habit of his.

That’s why in a few minutes he cuddles around Matthew, on his lap, and falls deeply asleep, resting one hand around the singer’s shoulder and his little head on the brunet’s chest.

Matt realizes that and immediately quits talking. Dominic observes the scene, softened.

“Awww, look at him, he fell asleep!” he murmurs with a smile.

“Let’s speak low, so he won’t wake up!” Matthew whispers, as he caresses affectionately the kid’s head and this is something that makes the blond soften even more.

“Mattie, think about it, one day we could have one kid all for us,” he beams.

Matt’s eyes go wide.

“No matter how many progress science is making, I don’t think you’ll ever manage to get me pregnant!” he makes the drummer notice.

“No, Matt, you didn’t un..”

“Plus, it should be the reversed stuff, don’t you dare forget who is Romeo and who is Juliet!” the brunet adds, cutting Dom off.

“What the heck are they talking about?” Alfie asks AvaJo.

“I have no idea!” the little girl shrugs, uncomfortable.

“Enough with this story, bloody quit it!” the blond snaps, but in a whisper. “Anyway, you idiot, I was talking about adoption! We could adopt a baby!” he points out.

“What does ‘to adopt’ mean?” AvaJo wonders.

“In my classroom there’s an adopted kid who told us that his parents are not really his parents, like if they bought him!” Alfie explains.

“I didn’t know that people could buy kids!” his sister mutters in shock.

“Sometimes they do.”

That makes her suspicious.

“Did mom and dad buy us?” she agitates.

“Nope, they didn’t buy us. Johnny told me once how children were born. Two older kids explained that to him. So, all it takes are a mom and a dad who are in love, they wait for a stork that takes cabbage that a bee stung… something like that!” Alfie states, kind of unsure.

“So why do uncle Dom and uncle Matt want to buy a kid?”

Alfie has no answer to his sister’s question.

“Did you say adoption?” Matt repeats, as he already contemplates that idea.

“Yep, here pairings like you and me are still not allowed to raise a child, but we could go to a place when we are allowed.”

“You already thought about everything, didn’t you?” Matt smiles at him.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. However, it’s obvious, first we have to get married!” the blond orders.

“The uncles are getting married!” AvaJo rejoices, controlling herself not to scream.

“It seems so…” Alfie mumbles, eager to hear more about it.

“I guess it’s more than right. Oh, Dommie, I can already picture that in my mind. You, me and… a baby. If it’s a boy we’ll call him Jimmy Kane, if it’s a girl… Hysteria!” Matt suggests, thrilled by the thought.

“Absolutely agree is it’s a boy, but if it’s a girl Hysteria is a way too impressive name. I’d like something more exotic, I don’t know… like Starlight or Cydonia!” Dom strikes back.

“They’re not so bad!” Matt caresses his chin, before getting up. “In the meantime, let’s take good care of this baby. The bed is much more comfortable than the sofa,” he goes on, going upstairs with Dom.

“Wait a minute. Where are Alfie and AvaJo?” the brunet asks, turning to the blond.

Alfie and AvaJo jolt, are afraid to be found and try their best not to make any noise that can draw the adult’s attention.

“I left them in the kitchen, having a snack. So this will take them a lot!” Dom smiles.

AvaJo sighs relieved as Alfie snorts annoyed.

“Are they hinting that I’m a big eater?” he grumbles, as his ego is wounded.

“Well, this is something you have in common with daddy!” the little girl chuckles. “Well, let’s not waste any more time!” she adds, as they leave the closet.

As Matt and Dom take Frankie to the bed, the other two have all the time to go back to the kitchen, where the two house masters find them chatting lively around the table.

“Okay, kids, if you want we can resume the exercises!” Dom informs them.

“We’ll be there in a minute, uncles!” Alfie answers back.

“Alright, we’ll wait for you in the living room,” Dom states, leaving with Matthew.

“We must tell the uncles nothing about what we heard, And we shouldn’t say anything to Frankie, either.” Alfie instructs his sister.

“Of course… however, phew… now I want to see them!” AvaJo complains.

Alfie stares at her dumbfounded.

“What do you want to see?”

“When they’re tender to each other, just like mom and dad do, when they hug tightly, when they hold hands and give them all those little kisses!” the little girl explains.

“Why the heck do you want to see the uncles do such stuff?” her brother asks her.

“Because I want to see what it feels like. I already like whenever I see them so, so close in the pictures, they remind me to the Care Bears! So I guess that I’ll like also when I see them being tender to each other. Besides, can’t you see how happy they are?” she goes on.

“You’re right. When uncle Matt was with the Italian girl and uncle Dom with the American girl they weren’t so happy!” he observes.

“Right. Plus, I didn’t like those girls very much!” AvaJo states.

“Yeah, they weren’t funny, nor pleasant. They never wanted to play with us!” her brother adds. “But do you think that we’ll manage to see the uncles when they act like mom and dad?” he wonders.

“Sure, we just have to check them constantly, they will do that sooner or later… probably when they think that they are alone!” the little girl answers.

After a while, Matt walks towards them.

“Hey, what are you two getting up to? Don’t you want to play anymore?” he jokes.

“Of course, uncle, we still want to play. I want to become as good as you with the guitar!” AvaJo smiles at him.

“And I want to be as good as uncle Dom with the drums, I’ll work very hard!” Alfie promises.

“Alright, kids, that’s the spirit! Let’s go!” Matt agrees, taking them to the living room.

Ava-Jo and Alfie keep an eye on Matt and Dom for the entire lesson, but they don't notice anything remotely tender, quite the contrary, the two adults barely look at each other.

After all, when it comes to music, both men take it very seriously.

The kid's continue to persevere, even during dinner, but even there Matt and Dom are impeccable and don't make any false step.

Truth must be told, contrary to his sister who keeps observing them with the biggest discretion, Alfie is far more focused on the smoking dish of pasta with tomato juice that is in front of him.

Frankie meanwhile just drinks, eats, chats, laughs and jokes with his uncles, unaware of everything.

After dinner, Matt and Dom clean the kitchen and the kids help them. Once they're done, they go to the living room, in front of the 32-inch TV to watch a funny comedy, which is suitable for children, marked by the classic green dot.

Matt and Dom are sitting on the front sofa, close, but not so close to fall into temptation, as the kids, although there are other sofas and armchairs available, prefer to lie down on the carpet, with their elbows on the floor and their heads resting on their hands.

Although they like the movie a lot, sometimes Alfie and Ava-Jo turn to their uncles, but once again they notice nothing.

The most tender moment the two kids witness is when, as they both keep watching the movie, they take their bottles of beer in the same moment, from the same table, so their hands skim with each other.  
Matt and Dom jolt a little and go on taking their bottles, parting from each other a little bit, not without exchanging a fleeting, mutual smile before.

To the two very curios kids that's not enough, of course.

Time goes on and so does the movie. They all keep watching it and sometimes the kids make some funny comments.

 

Mostly, Matt is busy counting all the hidden advertising, which is the most pathetic attempt of subliminal mind control; besides, he has fun detecting the mistakes during the acting.  
Dominic meanwhile is busy watching all the actors' outfits, trying to recognize the stylist and taking mental notes for his next wave of shopping.

After the movie, the kids look tired. It's time for Matt and Dom to take them to the bed.

In a few minutes, the sleepy, little trio are under the covers, but just when Dom and Matt are about to leave, switching the light off, Ava-Jo calls them.

"Dear uncles, sorry but I can't sleep this way!" she whines and, as a chain reaction, her brothers do the same.

"Do you want another fairy-tale?" Matt asks them.

\- Oh, God, no! What the hell am I supposed to invent now?- he silently wonders, agitated, but with his huge relief he sees the kids shaking their heads negatively

"No, we don't want another fairytale. But... could you two sing us a lullaby?" the little girl points out.

"You mean if he can sing it to you. Really, when it's a matter of songs, I'm not the proper guy to turn to!" Dominic admits ruefully. "But I'll gladly listen to him!" he adds, turning to Matt who seems to be in trouble.

"A lullaby, did you say? Do you mean that soppy, whining, fluffy little thing that makes kids sleep? I don't know any of them and I don't remember the ones that mom sang to me when I was a kid... if she has ever sung one!" the frontman grumbles.

"Daddy always sings to us a wonderful lullaby, he wrote it for us!" Alfie reveals.

The demon of competition takes possession of Matt once again.

"I can sing it as well, now I'm going to call your daddy, ask him how this thing goes like and..." Matt decides, grabbing his mobile, but Dom stops him.

"No, Bells, what the heck are you doing? Think about it. Do you really want to disturb Chris and Kelly as they're spending their holiday and probably will be busy doing ... you-know-what?" he patiently makes the brunet notice.

"Huh! You're right, it's not a good idea!" Matt admits, putting the mobile back into his pocket. "Kids, you'd like to hear any song, right?" he asks them.

The kids nod eagerly.

"A Netali puoi..." Matt starts to sing with his questionable Italian.

The kids stare at him puzzled and a little scared, but Dom intervenes promptly, silencing his mouth with one hand.

"Geez, Bells, that's not a lullaby!" he points out, frustrated. "Come with me, I know what to do!" he adds, dragging his lover away with himself.

"Be right back, kids!" Matt informs them, yelling from the corridor.

And they keep their word.

After few minutes they're back, Matt is holding an acoustic guitar, the same that he uses to give Ava-Jo the music lessons, which is the blue guitar that Dom gave him the night of their first month together, at the beach.

Dom is holding maracas, a tambourine and a triangle.

After all, their house is full of every kind of musical instrument.

They sit close to the kids who stare at them bewitched.

Matt tunes the guitar, Dom grabs the maracas. The first one starts a sweet riff, invented at the moment, as the second one tries to go along with his rhythm, alternating also the tambourine and the triangle.

The notes become sweeter and sweeter and the tinkling is so soothing that it rocks the kids as they're listening to it.

Sometimes Matt hums over the melody they're playing, with some high trills of his, adding little sentences as 'Sleep well ' or 'Sleep now'.

The kids seem to follow that musical advice, because they all close their eyes and fall asleep.

Matt and Dom quit playing, gathering all the instruments and leaving the room, as silent as they can.

As soon as they’re gone, Ava-Jo, who just pretended to fall asleep, shakes Alfie in order to wake him up, since he fell asleep for real.

“Let’s go, now it’s the proper moment!” she urges him.

“But I’m so tired!” her brother grumbles, unwilling to get up.

“Oh, c’mon, it takes just a little time, and then we’ll have all the rest of the night t sleep!” she insists, pulling him off the bed and leaving the room with him, as silent as two thieves, keeping at a safety distance from the adults, as they walk through the corridor.

Yeah, it’s only a few minutes past 11:00 p.m., but even Dom and Matt are going to bed. After all, being baby-sitters 24/7 is an exhausting job, especially if they have to look after such three little devils as Chris’ sons, full of the joys of spring.

“It wasn’t bad at all the idea of the improvised lullabies,” Matt asserts.

“It was something that popped out of my mind, out of the blue, but I wasn’t sure that it would work so well!” Dominic admits.

“We could create a compilation of lullabies played by you and me. The youngest fans of ours would appreciate it a lot!” Matt suggests.

“Geez, Matt, you’re obsessed with the recording of new compilations about everything!” the blond makes fun of him.

“Twuth is that I miss making a new album come out. I’ll resume working on our next brilliant job soon!” the brunet ponders.

Their walk goes on until they reach Matthew’s room.

Alfie and Ava-Jo keep following them with discretion, sneaking through the bathroom that is in the middle of the corridor.

Popping out form the door jamb a little bit, they can clearly see the adults, although they can’t hear their speeches.

“Well, well, here we go. Don’t you think that we seem two teenagers who have just come back from their first date?” Matt smiles at the blond.

“You’re right, but… who’s the girl and who’s the boy?” Dom asks the brunet, amused.

“Well, since you walked me here, I guess that I’m the girl!” Matt chuckles.

“So for once it’s you Juliet!” Dominic makes fun of his mate.

“What can I say? Sometimes it’s cool to switch the roles!” Matthew winks at his partner. “Hey, do you want to come to my place?” he invites him immediately after.

“You’re such a girl of easy virtue! I mean, you’re already inviting people at your place, after the very first date!” Dom jokes, but then he becomes more serious. “I’d like to, but you know better than me that it’s better if I don’t. We already took a huge risk this morning!” he makes him notice.

“You’re right. I give in and will get ready to spend another night without you,” Matthew pouts. “However, when a first date goes very well, there’s a certain way to say goodbye pwopewly,” he adds suggestive, with silky voice.

“That’s right, but let’s not exaggerate … otherwise I’ll become a boy of easy virtue!” Dom giggles. “Mon Cherie, you must be content with this,” he murmurs, moving closer to the pianist to place a very sweet kiss on his lips, as he caresses his face.

“But… they kissed!” Alfie gulps.

“Yeah, they’re so cute!” Ava-Jo sighs.

“Goodnight, Matthew!” Dom smiles at him, ready to go to the room that is temporary is bedroom.

“Goodnight, Dominic,” Matt beams, closing the door.

Ava-Jo and Alfie wait until the coast is clear, before coming back to their own room, satisfied by their fully accomplished mission.

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked even this part.
> 
>  
> 
> Cheers!

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little note: the things about their former girlfriends... lol, I don't mean to say that the real ones were abusive ( I really adore the real Gaia and Jess) , it's just related to the prequel (who read it knows that) 
> 
> The kids will take a while to arrive, hope you won’t mind.
> 
> In case you didn't already know it, I hope you liked it, feel free to tell me everything. also Kudos are very welcome ^^
> 
> thanks for your time ;)


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